


Darkness Falls

by escritoireazul



Series: The Protector Series [10]
Category: Lost Boys (1987)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2004-03-05
Updated: 2004-03-04
Packaged: 2017-10-16 03:08:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 49,111
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/167777
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/escritoireazul/pseuds/escritoireazul
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Who can you trust when everyone wears two faces?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Dedication: To everyone who has read and enjoyed The Protector Series. Thank you. The past five years have been fabulous.

The Santa Carla Mountains hunkered down just outside the city, covering the bay and its glittering Boardwalk in long shadows; when fog crept up from the sea-salt, their shapes wavered, quivering in the vaporous nothing, but never withdrawing the protection or the darkness they offered the inhabitants below.

A number of campgrounds nestled amongst the trees and black rocks, more than enough competition for the garish neon beauty of downtown Santa Carla. Few locals visited the hiking trails even during the day, much less remembered they could camp at night, and most of the time, only traveling tourists or transients with no better options would spend any time beneath the canopy of the trees, especially once the sun went down.

Few understood the terror that loomed ever near; fewer still would risk their lives by facing it. But one night, late in the summer, two tents intruded on the privacy nature itself had grown accustomed to. The larger one was pale blue, teetering back and forth on slender sticks of metal. Next to it, smaller, and tucked in against the trunk of a towering pine tree, was a tent made entirely of camouflage material. The only similarities between the two were the crosses dangling in front of the openings, and the sound of conversation from within.

Despite the location, peace settled over the camp. The voices that had started out loud and full of laughter, at least from the large tent, died down, and the soft sounds of sleep and the faint movement of nocturnal animals were the only noises to disturb the peace. Calm filtered throughout the scene, even when a dark figure poked its head from the smaller tent, glanced around as if in search of any unwanted visitors, and then ducked back inside.

It was then, as complacency settled over the campsite, carried by the thick, rolling fog of pre-sunrise morning, that disaster struck. The danger came from above, spewing from the star-filled sky, tearing away thin layers of fabric and flesh; it came from the side, sweeping along the rock-strewn ground, knocking stones and bones alike out of the way with no regard for comfort or life; it came from everywhere but underneath, where the ground clung to the feet of the campers, offering what assistance it could, but the fight was futile.

Two figures rushed out of the smaller tent, brandishing stakes; despite the late hour, they were both half dressed, as if they had either expected an attack of some sort, or had learned to throw on their clothing quickly.

They each picked a target, threw water at the attackers, stumbled over the destroyed ground, and tried to drive the stakes into the chests of the attackers, but their every attempt was batted away, leaving them as helpless as flies.

The larger tent fell, revealing a man struggling with one of the attackers, while a slender woman tried to free her long, dark hair from the grip of another. The one holding her laughed and bent in toward her, gripping her firmly around the neck, and lifting her off the ground until her feet kicked the air.

Blood splattered the pine trees, dark sentinels that watched over all without passing judgment. As screams shattered the stillness, pine needles quivered and dropped to the ground, sinking into sticky pools of hot blood as it spread across the dirt, less than expected from such a massacre, but sinking back into the earth never-the-less.

A slender figure stepped away from the madness, wiping bits of clothing and hair off of pale skin. One by one the others lifted their heads, leaving unmoving bodies on the ground as they drew together, silent, but receiving instruction anyway.

At last they separated, and four of the largest figures moved away from the circle, and gathered up the four campers, tossing each roughly over a shoulder. The campers gave no sign of life, even from that uncomfortable position. The tall, broad man remained apart, faint moonlight highlighting his dark hair; he tilted his head and the group vanished, disappearing into the night.

The bushes stirred at their passing, but soon enough peace filled the campsite once more, twigs falling silent as the wind died and strings of fog drifted upward, propelled by nothing. They twisted along the thin pine trees, reaching higher and higher until they pierced the sky, attacking the stars and settling over Santa Carla, muffling the deaths that marked each passing night.


	2. Chapter 2

Bring her, David ordered. Bring her or leave her, but no more hiding her. Marko revved the engine of his motorcycle, twisting the gas until it threatened to pop off the handle bar and leave him with no source of vehicular power.

Bring her.

It was an order, that much was clear. Anna had said the same thing, days before, Dwayne backing her decree for a meeting with his … with Sprite. But Anna was not leader, no matter how often she acted the part, and it wasn't until David had opened his mouth that the real trouble came.

Bring her.

It wasn't the order that he disliked. He was used to obeying the whims of his stoic Pack leader. David was known for cruelty and torture, but the reputation wasn't quite rightly earned. Instead he loved a wicked trick, and as the errand boy of the Pack, Marko was often the one sent out to do the dirty work. He didn't mind that, and in fact enjoyed his ability to ensure a seamless presentation of the games that exercised their vampiric powers.

This time, however, the order was different. He was to bring her, as if Sprite were nothing more than another initiate, like Michael had been a year ago. David told him to bring her, as if he would have to drag her, lure her in with the promise of unimagined goodies, like Dwayne had done for Laddie six months before Michael. Not that Sprite would be tempted by candy and staying up all night.

Sprite was … different. She wasn't a mortal, to be badgered, or convinced that the darkness was a gift they could give her. Preternatural blood throbbed within her veins, and she carried her own power, a strength that he could taste when the wind blew just right. She didn't have to be cajoled into meeting them, nor tricked, nor offered promises they wouldn't keep.

What was worse was that he had to bring her to the Cave, instead of neutral territory to soothe her nerves, or common ground where she would be able to flaunt her own strengths without being dampened by the wards David had plastered over their cliff. No, Anna's suggestion of a meeting at the Boardwalk had been shot down within moments of the words leaving her mouth. David lashed out, striking at her with his voice, with his command, and she'd winced only once, refusing to fight him over something so trivial.

But it wasn't trivial, Marko wanted to argue. Sprite's comfort was important to him, and as such should be important to his Pack. But David was their leader, though those ties had been tenuous as of late, and Marko wouldn't fight for anything different, not right now, when there had been so much turmoil already.

Beyond Sprite's impending discomfort, Marko worried about David. It had been obvious—painfully so, he'd heard Adam tell Victoria earlier that night—what the vampire was doing. Two reasons leapt up and smacked the Pack in the face when David insisted on meeting with Sprite at their Cave, his home-base. The first Marko could understand; David was a crafty leader, a good leader, and Sprite was a newcomer, a stranger, and as such, a potential threat, though Marko himself could never see her in such light.

It was the second reason that had Marko fretting even during the quick ride into Santa Carla to pick up Sprite. David's stubborn mindset when it came to this meeting was, he feared, a not-so-subtle way to remind Anna that he, not she, was the head of the Lost Boys. Marko had hoped that the domination struggles would cease once Laddie had healed and Anna settled back into the Pack, her sins forgiven if not forgotten. But more and more she stepped up, speaking out when she should have remained quiet, should have let David lead, especially when she still claimed to not want his power, or any power.

And David. David snapped more these days, driving her down, each word dripping with cruelty, each a knife to strike at Anna before her mental insubordination could become an actual challenge to him.

Marko shook his head roughly, tilting back until he could see the stars whip by overhead. Within a moment, the bright lights of the city, the neon pulse of the Boardwalk, all but obliterated the pinpricks of white, but that one instant he could peruse them was enough to send waves of calm rocking through his body.

He had to be calm. Already he could feel Sprite's apprehension, scent it on the wind, and he was still three blocks from her apartment. If he stepped back and viewed the situation with an uninvolved eye (a difficult task, that, considering how entrenched he was), he could understand her nerves, but it bothered him that she feared meeting his family, even if she was willing to.

He would calm her before they arrived, or at least he hoped he could. Because wereleopard or no wereleopard, walking into a vampire pack's home turf reeking of fear was the fastest way possible to get slaughtered. Marko wasn't about to let that happen.

~~**~**~~

Sprite paced like a caged tiger. The analogy was appropriate, she decided the moment she thought it, even if she wasn't a tiger. One big cat is another sometimes, and she couldn't deny the fact that she stalked back and forth in front of her apartment building, growling ever-so-slightly with each passing motion.

She wanted to carry the comparison farther, wanted to let her body melt into cat form, sleek fur replacing rough flesh, sinewy muscles bunching within four legs to carry her out of the press of the city and its strangers, strangeness, and into the cool oasis of the nearby forest.

But Marko was coming for her, and she wouldn't leave him without an explanation. She couldn't. She found herself caring for the vampire far too quickly for her own comfort. The fact that he was a creature of the night was a problem in and of itself; she didn't dare let her mind drift to how her father would react to seeing the company she kept these days.

He couldn't complain, a small voice from her inner self reminded her. Sprite often thought it was her leopard, speaking up in a slick tone to caress her into embracing more of the animal-side. He cast you out, forbid you from contacting any of your so-called friends or family. He drove you to this.

Even now she couldn't hate him. He was her Father, the man who had taught her survival skills, who had tended her broken bones and her one gun-shot wound just as tenderly as any parent could have soothed a fever.

One hand drifted up to rub her chest, absently, her thoughts turning now to the blow that had ripped away her life, her humanity, with the shreds of her skin. Long claw marks, silver with time, slid down her chest, down her stomach, down her thighs, across her wrists. It took a number of wounds to be infected by one of the feline weres, and it was just her luck she'd received just enough, when others had been attacked, survived, and remained human.

The sound of Marko's bike broke her from her dark reverie, and Sprite silently thanked him. Now wasn't the time for focusing on the past, on her father, on the horrors that had piled up so rapidly over the last year or two, or on what he would think of her current situation.

No, now was the time to worry about meeting Marko's Pack. Fear curled within her stomach, filling it just enough to make her ill, raising its head and laughing at her as razor-clawed kittens tumbled to and fro, dragging at her peace of mind.

"Sprite." Marko stopped his bike a foot away from her, reaching out one hand to help her climb aboard. She hesitated and he slipped off of his seat, closing the distance between their bodies with one short step. Again he reached for her with one hand and again she hesitated, until he stretched both arms wide.

She sank into his embrace, rested her face against his shoulder, and marveled absently at the way their bodies fit together so well. Always before men had been too tall, towering over her petite body, but Marko stood barely an inch taller, which put him at just the right height for … well, for everything.

"You ok?" Though she wondered if the question was rhetorical, Sprite shook her head, a move that rubbed her face back and forth against the soft patches on his jean jacket, even though very little of the original material could still be seen after he'd decorated it.

"No," she mumbled. "They're going to hate me."

"They are not going to hate you," he argued, pulling back until he could look down into her face. "I don't hate you, do I?" When she reluctantly shook her head, he continued. "Then why would my family hate you?"

"Because I'm not a vampire." She hadn't voiced the fear out loud to herself yet, but it sounded right, felt right to spill the secret to Marko. Her father had cast her out for not being human enough; she didn't think she could bear to be cast out for being too human.

"So? Adam's not. Victoria's not. They're part of the Pack." Marko shook his head at her and guided her to his bike. This time she let him help her on, wrapping her arms around his waist once they were settled. "It doesn't matter what you are, Sprite. We're not the kind to judge."

Not the kind to judge. Even as her mind marveled at those words, so easily spoken, her heart leapt. To belong again was something she hadn't let herself even dream of, because it couldn't happen, she knew that. Wereleopard pards were few and far between, and she wasn't comfortable with them. She had tried to kill too many to ever fit in. But with Marko and his family, in a new place, with a new name….

The night swallowed her thoughts as they sped through it, and Sprite concentrated on the vibration of the motorcycle between her thighs, on the feel of the wind biting into her cheeks, on the unfamiliar call that teased the edge of her senses, ever there, but unrecognizable.

~~**~**~~

Anna settled onto the worn leather couch, feeling the stuffing give beneath her body. She'd dropped into the same spot too many times to count in the past year, and her quick movements were beginning to tear the old furniture apart. Still, it was a part of home, and she was comfortable with it, antique though it was.

She stifled a burst of laughter. Antiquity was something she would have to learn to deal with, she realized. She was a vampire now, almost one year into this new life, and she was finally coming to terms with the idea that she was, for all means and purposes, immortal.

That meant the promises she'd breathed into Dwayne's dark, wet mouth, as their bodies melded together, blood flowing between them, meant more than anything she'd said as a mortal. Forever was quite a literal term, now.

"So why are we here and not out wrecking havoc with everyone else?" Anna spit the words out, but no malice colored them dark. She was frustrated with being held back from the hunt, of course, but had been around David long enough to know he always had a reason for what he did.

It wasn't necessarily always a good one, though.

The vampire under question tilted his head toward her slowly. The flames in the metal canister nearby lit his white-blonde hair until it seemed to shine on its own, but cast his eyes into shadow. Blonde stubble crept along his hard jaw line, and Anna could see the muscles there tense before he answered.

"I wanted to talk to you and Dwayne about what will go on tonight," David told her, folding his hands in his lap. His leather duster was flung over the arm of the chair, and his heavy boots rested flat against the floor. Every line of his body screamed bottled aggression, tension tucked into long-dead flesh.

"We're going to meet Marko's precious girl," Anna shoved her head back against the leather and forced her words to come out in a long hiss. "She'll be nervous, we'll ask her questions, then she'll go home and all will be fantastic."

"Not quite," David murmured, steepling his fingers and bringing them to his lips. "I will ask her questions, yes, but not you. And—"

"What do you mean not me?" Anna shoved herself forward, keeping her seat, but slammed her hands down against the table, palms flat, fingers twitching over the wood. "I have just as much right to talk to her as you do!"

Dwayne leaned forward slightly and placed one hand on her knee. The touch was light and innocent, but the rest of her arguments died on her lips as she settled back into the couch. Her arms trembled slightly from the force of holding back her tirade, but the small smile Dwayne bestowed upon her was more than worth it.

"As I said," David continued, keeping his voice low, "I will ask her questions. But that is not all I will do. She is … she is new to us, and she is not a vampire. I don't like that."

"But David!" Anna jerked upright again, flinging her hands into the air to punctuate her frustration. "What about Victoria and Adam? They aren't vampires. Face it, we're not just a vampire pack anymore. Marko's practically claimed her, at least in his mind if not in reality, and you. know. that."

"If you recall," David narrowed his eyes at her, though his voice remained calm, steady, "I did not approve of adding Victoria and Adam to our ranks. Beyond that, they have proven themselves worthy of being Pack, and they did so immediately. Whether we are a vampire pack or not does not matter—though we are. What matters is that Sprite is an unknown, and we have all seen what happens when I allow unknowns to join without putting them through tests first."

Anna winced and sat back again, wrapping her arms across her stomach. Bile-flavored words butted against her lips, but she pressed them together to hold the phrases back, refusing to rise to David's bait. It was bad enough that she'd caused more pain to her Pack in a year than they'd seen in decades; he didn't have to use her faults to prove his point.

Or, knowing David, maybe he did.

"Sprite has strikes against her already, more than she has any good marks to her name—a name that Marko had to give her, if you remember clearly, because she refused, refuses still, to provide her real one. First, she is a complete stranger to our town. Second, she admitted that she hunted preternatural creatures once upon a time. Even if she no longer does, who's to say that they won't hunt her down to get retribution? Third, she simply isn't a vampire. True, Marko doesn't usually take to anyone so quickly, but…."

Silence followed David's words, during which Anna shifted back and forth on the couch until the sound of her pants brushing the broken leather grew too loud and she forced herself to be still, even as energy tore through her muscles.

"Don't judge her before you meet her." Dwayne spoke up at last, removing his hand from Anna's knee when she remained silent, if not submissive. "Change can be good." David nodded at his words and relaxed, tilting his head back and closing his eyes.

Anna waited a heartbeat, trying to fight the words that wanted to come, but in the end, gave in to her silent struggle.

"David, I know you're our leader. As such, I understand that you get to decide if someone is worthy or not. But David, not even you can do everything." Anna leaned forward, gripping her knees with cold fingers. "Please, let us question Sprite too. Please. I…." She trailed off, staring at the wall, though she saw none of the details. When she spoke again, her voice was weak, lost. "I've had such bad feelings lately." Immediately she snapped her mouth closed, waiting for David to pounce on her show of weakness, but his reaction surprised her.

"You may talk to her," David acquiesced, raising his head to look directly into her face. "But you will not question her like I will. And if at any time I tell you to stop, you must." He waited, watching the rush of anger as it swept across Anna's face; the emotion was hidden quickly, but not before he caught the fire still burning inside his lieutenant.

"Thank you," she said simply, leaning into Dwayne's touch when he reached out to stroke her hair, tension slipping from her muscles as she drew strength from him. "Thank you, David."

He bowed his head once, and then turned to face the entrance to their sanctuary, where the sounds of rushing wind signaled the arrival of vampires. "They've returned. Come, we have to prepare."

~~**~**~~

"Don't be scared." Marko turned back to face Sprite from his spot at the top of the rickety wooden stairs leading down the cliff side. She hesitated, her arms wrapped tightly around her stomach.

"It doesn't feel right, Marko. It doesn't feel safe." The wind stole her words away, twisting them through the currents that rose and fell, lifting the ocean waves high against the rocks, until the path was treacherous to those who weren't familiar with its turns.

"It's not supposed to," Marko admitted. "Those are David's wards. He makes them strong, to keep people away. It feels bad, but it's fine. All vampires use them." Sprite lifted her head, pulled her chin off of her chest, and focused her eyes first on him and then farther out, on the turbulent sea.

"I won't get hurt?" she asked, wincing when she realized how impossibly small her voice was, tight with fear. He shook his head, and Sprite started forward, sucking in a long, slow breath of air as she hesitantly placed first her right foot, and then her left, on the damp boards.

"See? It's ok." Marko grabbed her hand, slid his fingers through hers, and led her down the stairs, keeping his pace slow and careful to help alleviate some of her fears. Sprite's grip tightened on him, but she allowed the vampire to guide her down one step at a time. She hesitated at one particularly slick spot, where the wood was worn away from the beat of salt water day after day, but Marko turned back, smiled at her, and she continued on.

"This next part is just a little tricky." Marko squeezed her hand as they stepped off of the wooden staircase. "Try to stick to the right edge of the ledge; the rocks there aren't quite as wet."

"The right edge," Sprite echoed, shaking her head slightly. As small as the outcrop was, there shouldn't really be a right edge, only a sliver of cliff shorn away by time and water to form the supposed path.

Boulders studded the slip of ground, forcing Sprite to release Marko's hand; she needed both of her own to balance as she clambered after him, scraping her right palm on one rock and banging her left leg against another. He, of course, seemed to float above them, and perhaps he was floating. She couldn't take her gaze off of her path long enough to check.

It took them only a minute, maybe two at most, to reach the entrance to the cave, but Sprite was winded by the time Marko stopped, waiting for her to come to his side. She pressed her hands against her hips, struggling to calm down, ease her nerves so that she wasn't a wreck when she stepped into the vampires' territory. She could smell her own fear, a bad sign; her scent was drenched with it, so thick that she wanted to gag each time she breathed in. Facing Marko's pack in this condition would be stupid.

"Wait," she whispered, catching hold of his arm as he tried to start forward. Instantly he hesitated, turned to face her, and softened his frown when he noticed the tension tightening her face.

"Hey now," he murmured, tapping her chin with his knuckle. "No one is going to hurt you. They just want to meet you, just want to talk. Don't be nervous." Mentally he hoped his words would prove to be true; he, of all of the Pack, knew that David wasn't happy bringing newcomers in, was even less happy after the turmoil of the past year. Still, he technically wasn't bringing Sprite into the Pack, not yet at least. This was just a … a getting-to-know-you-meeting, he tried to convince himself.

It might have worked, had a voice in the back of his mind not piped up; yeah, it told him, and you're a mortal again, right Marko? If you believe what you're saying, you are. He just hoped that Sprite would believe him, and that the others would do nothing to hurt her.

"Ok," Sprite said, lifting her chin and drawing in one more long breath. The smell of the ocean helped to calm the last of the worry from her face and she squared her shoulders, then reached out and took his hand. "Let's get this over with."

"That's my girl," Marko smiled, leaning in just long enough to kiss her cheek. She returned the smile after only a moment's hesitation, and he knew that was the best he was going to get. After taking a breath of his own, unnecessary for life but needed for calm, he led her into the dim entrance to his home.

Marko and Sprite stepped from the shadows into the warm glow of bonfires and candlelight. The familiarity of it warmed Marko, even as Sprite narrowed her eyes; she'd been expecting electric light, and the seeming step back in time threw her off.

The Pack was fully formed at the bottom of the entrance steps, spread out in a vaguely hierarchical formation. Dead center, but set against the back wall, David sat in his favorite immobile chair (the wheelchair was something else entirely, and used only for initiations and not hardly at all these days), which the others had teasingly (or not so teasingly, depending on their moods) nicknamed his Throne. To his right sat Anna and to his left sat Dwayne, both slightly closer to the entrance than he was. Paul, Laddie, and Adam sat on one of the faded couches to the right side of the room, Victoria settled on the floor between Adam's legs. To the left, Star and Michael shared one chair; Star's skirt took up most of the seat, so Michael perched on the edge.

The others looked at peace; if not at peace, he amended, then at least calmer than he was. Though he'd been forced to hide it from Sprite (and the fact that he could hide from her was almost a relief, after the tight links that bound the Pack together), he was as nervous as she was. Maybe more. She faced strangers, which was nerve-wracking, he had to admit, especially if you wanted to make a good impression, but he faced his friends, his family, his Pack. If things didn't work out for Sprite, she could walk away without anything to fear.

He didn't have that option. This was home, and once you called the Lost Boys family, you didn't get to leave. He shoved one hand through his hair, his fingers catching in the riot of soft curls.

"Welcome, Marko. I see you have brought the wereleopard Sprite to us." David was the first to break the silence; at his words, simple in their own right, but steeped in the heavy darkness that permeated his voice, the tension in the air that had been small, barely noticeable, blossomed into something desperate and frightened.

"Yes, David." Marko hesitated, torn between a casual introduction that leaned on the friendship he had with the others and a more formal meeting, one that was fitting for the Pack structure. The latter seemed almost too much for what he wanted; this was supposed to be a nice meet-and-greet, a simple affair so he could show off Sprite, see what the others thought of her.

It wasn't to be, he knew that without having to hear another word pass from David's lips. Whatever game the older vampire was playing wasn't obvious, nor was it important; what was important was the fact that David obviously wanted pomp and grandeur, and, above all, for this meeting to follow custom.

"May I present Sprite. I have brought her, with permission, to the home of the Lost Boys; would you greet her?" The words were foreign to Marko's mouth and tasted heavy on his tongue. David did not often enforce the formulaic customs that every vampire pack was aware of and at least able to move through the basic rituals; he wanted his followers to be more casual, more open … more a family than a dictatorship.

Until now, it seemed.

"Yes, I will greet her." David inclined his head to Sprite, tilting his chin down so slightly that the wereleopard had to look hard in order to see the movement. "Welcome to my home, Sprite. You have safe passage amongst my people … for tonight. After tonight, well, we will see. I greet you as the leader of the Lost Boys; I greet you as David."

"Welcome, Sprite." Anna's words picked up where David's left off with an ease that belied the tension radiating between them every night. She didn't smile, but did nod once, a full nod, to greet the girl, and motioned with her right hand to the cave in general. "I greet you as David's lieutenant; I greet you as Anna." She hesitated a moment, then allowed the words to continue on. "I greet you as a friend of Marko."

Sprite tensed and slid closer to Marko, the muscles of her back so tight that she feared they would snap her spine in half. What hurt most, however, was the surprise twisting her insides. She'd expected to fear David, after hearing Marko talk about his enigmatic leader. She hadn't, however, thought that her stomach would tighten and her heart would race after hearing Anna speak.

David might be the leader, but it was Anna who caused Sprite to break out in a cold sweat, forced her to cower against Marko's side. Though Anna's greeting had been much friendlier in tone than David's had, even if their words had been almost the same, Sprite couldn't quite bring herself to look the female vampire in the face.

"Welcome, Sprite," Dwayne continued on after Anna spoke, though he left a short pause between her speech and his own. Immediately Sprite jerked her head up, her gaze settling on his face. "I greet you as David's lieutenant. But more, I greet you as Marko's Sire; I greet you as Dwayne." He met her gaze steadily; after a moment, his lips lifted into an honest smile. "I greet you as the Chosen of my Childe; I greet you as my Animal to Call."

Marko jerked in surprise, the reaction stemming both from Dwayne's words and from the rare smile. Dwayne rarely referred to himself as Marko's Sire, though he was; it wasn't a secret they kept from the rest of the Pack, but it never seemed important enough to bring up, not after so many years as a Pack, as part of something larger than the Sire and Childe relationship. David was the leader of both of them, now. Too, though Marko had known what Dwayne's animal was, he'd since put it from his mind. Not once had he made the connection, and he wondered now why Dwayne hadn't noticed the entrance of a new wereleopard to the city, when there were so few around as it was.

And then there was the smile. In all the years Marko had known Dwayne (and the number was high, all of his vampire years, plus almost another full year as a mortal), Dwayne had smiled so rarely that Marko was sure he could count the number of times on both hands and still have fingers left over—maybe even on one hand. True, Dwayne did look happier more often now, but his face usually registered a calm blankness that kept out all but the most intimate observer.

Marko glanced at Anna, wondering if she'd caught the expression, and if she had, if she could make any sense of it. His gaze had only just settled on her face when he realized that yes, she had most definitely seen it, and no, it did not a happy vampire make. Her jaw tightened and thrust forward, her hands gripped the arms of her chair with renewed strength, and one foot began to tap against the ground.

Sprite was oblivious to the dark glare that Anna focused on her; instead all her attention was aimed at Dwayne. She could feel something warm run through her body when he smiled at her, and she shifted away from Marko, straightening her back, the tension that caused her muscles to ache now slipping from her body, falling away like ropes from the side of a boat.

"I greet you, David, Pack Leader, Anna, Lieutenant, and Dwayne, Friend." Even as Sprite voiced the greeting, she knew she'd chosen wrong when it came to the last word; maybe it was more the expression on her face, because she could feel her lips lift into a smile, could feel the happiness rise in the flush of her cheeks. Anna leaned forward just enough that Sprite could begin to feel the waves of menace radiating off of the vampire; Anna's eyes narrowed and she allowed the slightest hint of teeth to show in her silent snarl.

"Now that you have been greeted," David ignored the rising tension and focused instead on his previous plan, "you may take a seat." Marko led Sprite to a worn loveseat, set just off-center of the rest of the group, though it offered a direct line of sight to David's face.

"Don't worry," Marko whispered into Sprite's ear as he settled down next to her. "He'll ask you some questions, try to be tough, and maybe offer you some food. It's nothing to worry about. Really."

Somehow, after looking at David's bland expression, Anna's angry eyes, still dancing with fire, and Dwayne's now controlled smile, Sprite couldn't quite believe his comforting words, no matter how much she wanted.

"Before we begin, let me introduce the rest of my Pack. Star and Michael, vampires." Sprite looked to where he indicated, and smiled at them, though the corners of her mouth trembled. "And over there are Paul and Laddie, vampires, and Adam and Victoria, werewolves." David's voice darkened as he forced out their names, but his face betrayed nothing of any inner turmoil he might feel.

"Werewolves…." Sprite repeated the word, openly staring at Adam and Victoria, even though she'd known that they would be there. She'd hunted such creatures for years, of course, but hadn't even had the chance to study them—well, beyond the memorization of ways to kill them, their weakness, the ideas that her father focused on. Now that she was a preternatural, and still uncomfortable with her own body, she wanted to know more. And maybe, just maybe, this would be the way to learn it … if only the male, Adam, wasn't glaring at her so, his arms crossed over his chest so that his muscles bulged, his expression almost matching Anna's.

"Yes, werewolves. That's beyond the point." David's abrupt interruption dragged Sprite's attention back to him. He clapped his hands together, brought his fingers to his mouth for an instant, then dropped his arms down to the sides of his chair and tilted his head to the right. "Sprite. Why have you taken such an interest in Marko? I know about your family history. Is this an elaborate plot to befriend him, so you can infiltrate my home and try to kill us?"

Silence descended after David finished speaking; as soon as the blunt question sank in, a cacophony of voices rang out, each fighting the rest to be heard. The sound was much like a flock of seagulls screaming as they shared airspace over the coastline, and David sat back, his lips twisting into a faint smirk, looking rather pleased with himself.

"Why would I want to kill you?" Sprite shook her head, confusion clear in her eyes and voice. "I don't even know any of you, except for Marko. And why would I want to kill him? He's my … friend." She hesitated, and lost her slight edge on the conversation when the others' voices spread out, louder than hers, filled with more power than hers.

"I'm getting tired of this prejudice against non-vampires." Adam growled when he finished speaking, clenched his hands into fists so that the muscles of his arms tightened, stood out farther, even more defined. He opened his mouth to speak again, but Victoria reached out, touched his knee, and he stopped, let her continue instead.

"Yes, we should be careful. There are threats out there; we all know this. Often, we are the threat. But you don't have to attack her like that. It's just going to lead to a fight … a mess. Like this one." Victoria stroked Adam's leg, curled against him, and swept her long hair out of her face. "And this is worth nothing. It accomplishes nothing, and you know that, David. Why try to shake us up?"

"Am I nothing, David?" Marko surged to his feet, ridges forming along his forehead, his eyes glowing red as the change swept over him, fueled by his sudden fury. "Do I mean nothing? Am I worth nothing? Am I just a toy? Because that's what I'd have to be, if she was just using me like that. Am I so unimportant, so invisible that of course Sprite couldn't be interested in me for my sake? Oh no, it would have to be because of the Pack, because as individuals without a Pack, we're less than a human, aren't we? Or maybe I should say without you?"

"We really don't need another threat," Michael didn't stand, didn't yell, but his voice rose out from the mix for a moment before being dragged back down, lost to the mish-mash of reactions, expressions. "Everyone else has either tried to kill us or led someone else here to kill us. David may be overreacting, sure, but what if he has a point?"

"It's a damn good thing Rilly isn't here. She'd never want to join us for real if she could see this. Why do you have to think everyone is out to get us?" Paul shook his head, spat air out. "Damn. Can't she just be interested in Marko? Can't she just want to meet us because we're his family? If we're that; this doesn't seem very family to me."

"Just who do you think we are, David? Do you think we're special? Are we worth making huge sacrifices just to infiltrate, to hunt? Are we the be all and end all of vampires, is that it?" Anna sneered as she spoke, switching her narrowed gaze from Sprite to David. Her response was almost lost in the rumble from the others, but David focused on her anyway, met her gaze with one of his own, hard, angry. He frowned, pressed his lips together tightly, then hissed his reply, letting the soft sibilance of his words slip through the cacophony to caress her ears.

"Speak with me once Sprite is done."

Anna nodded once, settled back against her chair. She placed both feet on the edge of the table in front of her, crossed her arms over her stomach. Dwayne reached out, as if to slide his hand along her shoulders, caress her neck for an instant, but he was too far away to reach her without standing, without crossing in front of David, without breaking the spell his leader was building.

"Enough." David lifted his voice, though he did not yell. Instead he filled each letter, each sound, with power strong enough to beat down on his Pack, to force them into silence even if they didn't feel the need to submit. "That is enough."

It was is if he'd sucked the oxygen out of a room full of mortals; as one, the Pack stopped speaking, frozen in their final reaction, then released, settled back into their places. The tension didn't fade one iota, but each member pressed mouths closed tight, gripped chair arms, bracelets, other people's hands, and waited for their leader to speak.

"Sprite, you once hunted with your father, correct?" David waited for her reluctant nod, and then waited a moment longer, watching as she began to twitch uncomfortably, shifting her weight from one position to another. "Where is your father now?"

"I don't know," she admitted. "After I … after the change, he looked at me with such disgust, such hatred. I thought he'd kill me as soon as I wasn't being watched by doctors. I wasn't … I ran away and haven't seen him since."

"You hunted with your father," David repeated, tapping one finger against the side of his mouth. "He trained you. He instilled his own perceptions in you, made you a killing instrument in your own right. You should hate preternatural creatures, you should have craved death once you became what you most detested. Yet you ran away from the one person who could most certainly kill you. Why?"

"I…." Sprite hesitated, stared down at her fingers, watched as they trembled, until she tucked them under her arms. "I wasn't ready to die. I hated what I was, of course, but I wasn't ready to die. Is anyone, really? I was … am so young. Even though part of me agreed with my father, knew that I was an abomination and should be killed, I wasn't ready to die."

"Did he give up so easily?" Anna fought to keep her eyes off of David as she spoke, because she didn't want to make him think she needed his approval in her questioning. "Have you been hunted, Sprite? Your past is never as distant as you'd like to think." She stopped, glanced at Laddie and tried not to look at Dwayne and failed, her eyes dark.

"I don't think so." Sprite lowered her head, bit her lip, stared at the floor, did anything she could think of to keep from looking at Anna. The vampire's voice sent tendrils of fear creeping along her spine and try as she might, she couldn't escape the threatening vibes that radiated off of Anna. "Not that I've seen. He must have … he must have thought I'd kill myself."

"And why would he think that, Sprite?" David nodded to Anna, not caring whether she looked up and caught the gesture. The question had been a good one, and he was pleased to see that she had followed his line of questioning and hadn't sparked out on her own, started a mess she wouldn't know how to clean up.

"We talked about it, that's why." Sprite sighed, looked up, her eyes distant. She could focus on David, even while he sneered at her, distrust visible in the bared teeth. "That was one of the first lessons I ever learned; if one of us was infected, and the other didn't kill us, we'd kill ourselves."

"Didn't learn your lessons very well, did you?" David chuckled, casting his voice into a deeper register and filling it with malice until darkness fairly dripped from the sound. Sprite jerked her chin up, narrowed her eyes, and frowned at him through her intimidation.

"I killed over a hundred prets in my time," she snapped. "I think I learned my lessons just fine, thank you."

"And that brings me to the real problem, Sprite." He spat the words out, his eyes shining. She'd given him the perfect opening. "You are a killer, kitty, a killer of preternaturals. Whether you've killed vampires before or not is irrelevant. You've killed creatures like us. What's to stop you from killing again, this time members of my Pack?"

"I'm done with that life!" Sprite jumped to her feet, passion infusing each movement with energy, strength. "I can't have it anymore, no matter how much I may want it. So no matter how much I wish I could drive a stake into your heart, or cut your head off, David, I can't. Because I'm not human anymore, and I can't kill what I've become. I can't, not without killing myself, and I can't do that. I won't. I'm not … not ready to die."

Silence followed her outburst, until David brought his hands together, the applause muffled by the tension in the room. "Very nicely put, Sprite. For now, you'll do." The others focused on him, confused by the sudden change of attitude. "For now, I accept you as a friend of Marko, and as non-enemy to the Lost Boys. Welcome, Sprite."

"I…." Sprite hesitated, her face scrunched up. Marko reached out, touched her wrist, a faint brush of skin to skin contact, and her face relaxed as she settled on one thought. "Thank you, I guess."

"Please, sit." David motioned not to the loveseat she'd been sitting on, next to Marko, but instead to a chair placed closer to his own throne. "I wish to speak with you further."

Sprite nodded, feeling her legs propel her body forward before she had truly had time to process the request. If it could be considered a request, and from the undercurrent of power that colored his every word, she doubted it.

David waited until Sprite was settled once more, her legs crossed at the ankles, hands clasped together in her lap, the picture of peace. His enhanced vision picked up the tremble to her fingers and the shadows of fear that flitted across her eyes, and he couldn't restrain his pleasure; it manifested itself in a smile, softer than his normal smirk.

Sprite forced herself to breathe slowly, keeping each breath as silent as she could, automatically reverting to her training. Once she had calmed, mere seconds after sitting, she lifted her eyes to meet David's gaze, and felt her breath catch, her throat tighten down until no oxygen could move out or in, no matter how sneaky.

The firelight reflected off of his face, shadowing his cheeks and sharpening the line of cheekbone until she would have been afraid to touch it, if she didn't already fear him, because she would worry about cutting her fingers. Though his malevolence was palpable, rising from him in waves buoyed by his power, Sprite realized that the vampire was beautiful. Walking-death, perhaps, but beautiful.

"Now that you have been welcomed, there are certain boundaries that you should know about. You are our guest, no matter if you are here or anywhere within our territory. You are free to hunt, as you will, to use your powers, so long as you do not interfere with the safety of my Pack."

"Of course," Sprite murmured, ducking her head. Instinct told her to meet David's gaze, to stand up for herself, but she couldn't look at him, not with the light falling just so, the shadows twisting around him. Not when she enjoyed his face, though Marko still sat next to her.

"If you need our help, all you need do is ask. As our guest, we will protect you as one of our own, until such time as you truly become a member of my Pack, or you betray your welcome. Be warned, Sprite, that friend or not, we will destroy you at the first sign of such an occurrence."

"I would never!" Sprite frowned, but the expression lost its power when she still refused to look at David. He waited, but she said nothing more, and at last he nodded, lifted one hand in a motion that freed the others from their positions.

"You may go, Sprite. We will meet again soon, I am sure of it." He straightened until his back was a crisp line, and waited for her acknowledgement. She rose slowly, inclined her head to David and then to Anna and Dwayne in turn, and then began the long walk back to the entrance. After only a few steps, Marko joined her.

"Wait." Anna rose, frustrated that she had not been allowed to interact more, had not taken the chance to interact more. "We'll walk you out." Sprite nodded, though surprise and confusion could be seen in the depths of her eyes. Anna ignored that, motioned for Dwayne, and the two of them joined Sprite and Marko as they climbed to the entrance and slipped out into the cool night air.

"We'd like you to join us for dinner, Sprite. Just the four of us, to talk outside of ... all this." Anna waved her hand to punctuate the vague words. "A human dinner, at a restaurant, so you will be more comfortable."

Sprite felt the hairs on the back of her neck rise and she bristled at the insinuation that she wouldn't be comfortable in the same setting as the vampires. When she realized she had actually drawn her lip back to bare her teeth in a silent snarl, she stopped and nodded.

"I look forward to it," Dwayne spoke at last, his tone low, tumbling down. She shivered as if he'd physically caressed her, and goose bumps rose along her skin. After a moment, she dared to glance up at him, and was graced with another smile, this one even warmer than the first.

Anna lifted an eyebrow, her own lips drawing back into something akin to a snarl, then turned, the sound of her boots striking the rock fading away in an instant as she rapidly descended back into the cave. Dwayne shrugged and followed her down, the wind tossing his hair back so that Sprite could continue to scent him after he had disappeared.

Marko cleared his throat and she started, blushing as she realized she'd been caught staring after the tall vampire like a love-sick child. Sprite shuffled her feet, kicked at a rock, and waited for his anger, but he said nothing about the scene.

"I'll give you a ride home if you want," he offered quietly.

"No thanks. I'd rather walk." When she saw his face fall, she knew she'd said the wrong thing. Instead of taking the words back, however, Sprite simply leaned forward and brushed her lips across his. "I have a lot to think about right now, Marko. The walk will give me time to clear my head."

He nodded. "Tomorrow night then, dinner?"

"Wouldn't miss it." She kissed him once more and then hurried away, wrapping her jacket around her body to block out the chilly wind. Marko watched her go, and remained outside long after she had disappeared and her smell had faded. His low growls could just be distinguished from the waves striking the rocks at the base of the cliff.

~~**~**~~

Inside the woods that skirted around the edge of Santa Carla, the wind was less fierce, and Sprite slowed her steps until she walked at a leisurely pace, letting her mind shift backward to review all she'd experienced that evening.

Two things stood out within her thoughts, and in all her previous worry about the meeting, she hadn't come close to hitting upon what would stick with her, bother her. She had feared everything from mockery to down right torment, but nothing came close to the truth.

Two new attractions drove her thoughts, pricking at her mind until she was forced to pay attention to them. Both the warmth within Dwayne's smile and the beauty to David's coldness startled her, and Sprite couldn't turn her mind from examining her reactions to the vampires.

Dwayne's smile had been simple, comforting, and though she didn't desire him, she felt an uncontrollable urge to go to his side, and do whatever it took to make him look at her like that again. It wasn't lust and it wasn't any kind of love she was familiar with, but it was almost like an inner, built-in need to please him, to make his eyes light up.

Even if Anna destroyed her for it. She shuddered, and tried to abandon that image, and moved on to the other ideas that ricocheted around her brain.

Though she knew the thoughts were traitorous, knew that they shouldn't have even drifted through the landscape of her mind, much less taken root, Sprite didn't have the strength, or the desire, to banish the image of David from her mind. Even now, the memory of the hard set of his lips, the smirk that twisted his features, made her shiver and rub her arms.

She shouldn't have liked him, she realized that. He'd gone out of his way to attack her, to force her into making admissions she wasn't ready to think about, and definitely wasn't ready to share with a room full of strangers. But.

But then he had released her, allowed her to stay, and her insides had quivered at his strength, at the control he'd exerted, both over his Pack and over his own self. She wasn't sure why it attracted her, and she couldn't help that feel this was a moth and flame situation. No denying it had intrigued her, though, and she slapped her hands against her legs, upset to realize she looked forward to their next meeting.

Maybe that was to be expected. After all, she had had little control over her life since the preternatural accident; perhaps that was why David's own control, his own strength, overwhelmed her and interested her and frightened her, all at once.

She pressed her fingers to her face, hiding her eyes, letting her sense of smell and hearing guide her through the forest. She didn't want to be intrigued, didn't want to hurt Marko, and didn't want to face the deeper needs that thrummed within her body.

How could she regain control over her own life? Sprite wanted to scream, but the only sound she let escape was a quiet mewl, more cat than human. She couldn't hardly control the cat within, half the time, much be able to take her life into her own hands and make plans and see them through.

"It's all Dad's fault!" She spat the words out with more venom than she'd realized had been inside; the sound of her voice, expressing an idea she hadn't fully considered before, stopped her cold. She shuffled her feet, glancing around to make sure no one had heard her, though she was still alone, deep within the woods separating the cave from Santa Carla. "If he had just…."

Just what? Sprite started walking again, picking up her pace until her she was almost trotting along the faint path. What could he have done to help her? It wasn't his fault she'd gotten torn up, and it certainly wasn't his fault that she was now a wereleopard. He'd done enough for her, hadn't he, by not killing her on sight, by giving her time to get away. That alone proved how much he….

"How much he loved me?" Sprite whispered, unable to shake the fear that someone listened to her blasphemous words. "Of course it shows how much he loved me; he would have shot anyone else right there in the hospital." Even to her own ears, her voice sounded weak, unsure, and she picked up the pace once more, running flat out, the trees whipping by; leaves snapped at her cheeks as she ducked and jumped, allowed her enhanced senses to keep her moving forward without being injured.

"If he really loved me, he wouldn't have made me leave." The words hurt to speak, hurt more to think, and Sprite cried out, a wordless noise of desperation. Before the sound had completely disappeared, she had shed her clothes and was shifting, the physical pain layering itself over her mental thoughts, wiping away everything but the agony of the change, and then the freedom that four paws, muscular legs, bright fangs, glowing eyes, and more speed brought.

Her feline features felt more real than her human face, and she tried to shudder, but the move wasn't as easy when she was an animal. Awareness thrummed to life inside her body; she examined it, with the part of her mind that carried human thoughts and cognition, and realized that it was the familiar twinge she'd felt ever since entering Santa Carla. Now, however, she could put a name to the inexplicable, and she recognized the brush of Dwayne's power as it rolled through her mind, like a gentle pat to the head, and then settled back, a quiet presence.

If she ran fast enough in animal form, maybe she'd leave her silly two-legged thoughts behind.

~~**~**~~

"Anna." David's voice stopped her the moment she returned to the cave. Dwayne stopped only a moment after she did, his body bumping hers from behind, and she knew he could have stopped without touching her, and knew the contact was supposed to bring her comfort. "Come with me."

She sighed, but stepped away from Dwayne, and followed David as he led her back up the stairs, and farther along the cliff, away from Marko, who had studiously avoided looking at them as they climbed the stairs.

"Anna," David said again, his hands lost in the pockets of his leather duster.

"What is it?" she snapped, her voice harder than she'd intended. She crossed her arms over her chest and glared at him, unable to gather the energy to hide her reactions to his attitude. She was too on edge, too upset about the—whatever—that was visible between Dwayne and Sprite, even for the short time they'd been together.

"Anna, you were out of line," he said, his voice low, but not angry. "I agreed to let you question Sprite, as long as we presented a unified front, and you still argued with me, spoke out against me."

"Did you even hear what you said, David?" Anna said, her eyes flashing. "You act like we're the gods of the night, and that everyone is jealous enough to try to harm us. You act like we're something special…."

"And we're not?" He raised his eyebrows at her, and Anna stuttered, and had to look away. "We are special, Anna, we are powerful. We have admirers, we have enemies. And since you came here, it seems we have many enemies, and everyone is out for vengeance, or jealousy, or anything that causes us pain."

"Are you trying to blame everything on me, again?" Anna rolled her eyes, but still couldn't face him, and had to force herself to sound flippant, disgusted by his accusation, but not upset, not disturbed.

"No, I'm not." His answer surprised her, and she blinked, and continued to stare out at the ocean, though her head was tilted toward him as she tried to pick up any nuance of tone that might give her a clue as to where he was going. "I don't want to start that old argument, Anna, because there are other things to deal with, here and now. Yes, I think we are special, but that is not why I questioned her. She is a hunter, Anna, and it is difficult for a tiger to change its stripes."

"Funny," she muttered, and ducked her head.

"I don't mean to be funny," he told her, his voice wry. "I'm very serious here, Anna. She is different, she has always been different, and though she is no longer just human, she still isn't like us, and that makes her dangerous."

"David, do you speak and forget what you've said?" He growled at her words, and she turned to face him at last. "Back there, you were all ready to call Sprite a killer, a danger to use because she killed preternatural creatures, even if they were non-vampires. You called them ‘creatures like us,' David. You can't say that, and then accuse her of being a danger because she's not a vampire!"

"She's a danger because she was a hunter!" David finally exploded; his voice rose until he bellowed, and one clawed hand lashed out, grabbed Anna's arm, and squeezed. "She is a danger because she is trained to hunt and kill. This has nothing to do with what she is now."

"But if you call them ‘creatures like us,' how can you be against letting werewolves, wereleopards, werewhatevers join our Pack? Why did you throw such a fit when Adam and Victoria came around?"

"Just because they are preternatural creatures, just as we are, doesn't mean that they have to be friends, allies. And just because they aren't exactly like us, doesn't mean that I want to see them slain by mere humans. Wolves and coyotes may not share territory, Anna, but that doesn't mean either wants to see the other attacked and killed by the sheep."

"I don't get it, David. You have all this power, you have this strong Pack, and you want to be a hermit, walled up inside your home." She jerked her arm out of his grasp, and turned away, taking to the air to return to the cave.

Even though she tried to close her ears and ignore him, she still heard the quiet words that followed her departure.

"You've never really lost anything, Anna, or you would understand my caution."

~~**~**~~

"Happy Fourth of July!" The cries of joy and celebration echoed not just from the loudspeakers set up around the Boardwalk, but from the crush of people fighting their way through the entrances and out onto the beach, where high overhead the stars glittered and danced, waiting for ten o'clock and the release of the fireworks.

"Fourth of July," Anna echoed, tapping her fingers against the table. "What an interesting holiday, especially here." She lifted her wineglass to her lips with the other hand, and drained it. The waiter appeared instantly to refill both her glass and the breadbasket Sprite and Marko had worked their way through.

Bread crumbs littered the small plate in front of Sprite, some even spilling down onto the table. Her fingers tore into a fresh piece of bread, shredding it unconsciously. "Why do you say that?" she asked, struggling to keep her gaze on Anna's face and off of Dwayne, who sat in the corner of the balcony, shrouded in shadows.

"Because less than half of the people here are American." Anna laughed, the sound stiff and forced. "During the summer, the Boardwalk hires workers from other countries, especially England. And besides that, this is a vacation destination for foreign tourists. The big celebration of America's freedom takes place with a crowd in which only one out of four are actually American and want to celebrate."

"That's … interesting." Sprite realized she was destroying another piece of bread, and dropped it onto her plate, surreptitiously wiping her hands on her pants. When the waiter gave her a contemptuous look, she winced and reached instead for her napkin.

"David would say it was a pointless observation." Anna's lips twitched and instead of speaking further, she turned her attention back to her wine. The comfortable levels of interaction floundered, until Dwayne broke the silence and spoke.

"David would say that about many things," Dwayne reached out, squeezed Anna's hand in reassurance. "But we're not here to talk about him." His gaze shifted to Sprite and he smiled at her in greeting. "Sprite, I'm glad to see that David didn't frighten you away last night."

"No." She ducked her head shyly, embarrassed to realize that her cheeks had flushed. "He's tough but he's not that bad. Besides, Marko warned me that I wouldn't necessarily be welcomed."

"Oh, but you are." Dwayne smiled again, took a drink of his wine, set it back down on the table. "David doesn't handle change well, and there has been much change lately. But I know Marko wants you to feel welcomed to our home, as do I."

Anna stiffened and drained the rest of her drink, caught the waiter's attention to get yet another one, but didn't say anything. Dwayne either didn't notice or chose to ignore her when she extracted her hand from his and pressed her fingers together, twisting at her napkin.

"Thank you." Sprite smiled up at him. When he returned the expression yet again, she couldn't ignore the warmth that spread through her body, her satisfaction at making him happy. "I have … a question. If you don't mind?"

"Go ahead," Marko spoke up. "Dwayne doesn't talk much, but when he does, he usually has really good answers." He grinned at her and slipped his arm across the back of her chair. Sprite stiffened, and then relaxed back into the half-embrace.

"Well, it's weird, you see." She ducked her head, and then forced herself to look up at Dwayne. "I don't really know how to explain it, and I definitely don't understand it, but I just feel so drawn to you."

Anna shifted in her seat, her lips twisting into a silent snarl, but Dwayne placed one hand on her knee, letting his fingers stroke across her smooth leather pants until she calmed down. Sprite leaned back away from the table as far as she could, but kept her gaze on Dwayne's face, waiting for his answer.

When Anna had settled, Dwayne rewarded Sprite's question with yet another smile. "That's as it should be," he informed her, keeping his voice low so the other diners wouldn't be privy to their discussion. "You see, you are a wereleopard, and that is my animal to Call."

Their waiter approached, clearing away the empty bread basket and placing their meals on the table. Their conversation ceased until he had refilled Anna's drink, to her obvious relief, and had retreated, driven away by the hostile look she gave him, despite her pleasure at his prompt service.

"To Call?" Sprite asked before taking a bite of her lasagna. "What's that?"

"It's a vampire power," Dwayne explained. "Older vampires, or especially powerful young vampires, can have a bond to a specific type of animal, whether that animal is natural or supernatural. My animal just happens to be the leopard, though it wasn't much use around here, not until now."

"What does it mean, having an animal to call, being an animal to call?" Sprite twirled her fork through her plate, interested despite herself. She hadn't wanted to become this involved in her preternatural life, not ever, but it was intriguing and she liked the way being close to Dwayne made her feel, so it couldn't be all wrong.

"I could take strength from you if I needed it," Dwayne said, trying to keep his explanation simple. "We have a bond, and the more time we spend together, the stronger it will grow. Even if we'd never met, I could tap into your strength, but it would be difficult for me. Being close to your animal, both physically near her, and emotionally bonded, as well, helps."

"He could make you do things, if he wanted to," Anna added. She had barely touched her spaghetti; instead she pushed it back and forth across her plate, her brow creased. "Make you fight for him, or make you hurt someone else. Or yourself."

"I can sense when a leopard is nearby," Dwayne squeezed Anna's knee, unsure why she seemed upset, but not quite willing to let the conversation drop. "As I've gotten older, my range has grown by many miles. Now I can tell when a leopard comes into the area from here through San Francisco. Of course, I can get more accurate the closer they are to me physically."

"That reminds me," Marko interrupted. "Why didn't you notice when Sprite came to town? You usually mention when a wereleopard passes through, but you never said anything."

"I was distracted," Dwayne admitted. He inclined his head toward Anna, and offered her a slow smile. "Things have been rather hectic this year, and I had much on my mind. It was a slip that could have cost me a great deal of trouble. It is lucky that Sprite is friendly, and lucky that you found her, Marko."

"I agree." Marko hugged Sprite around the shoulders and she leaned into him, content, and shook away the final tendrils of worry that had crept along the muscles of her back ever since the meeting in the cave.

"Does anyone else in your Pack Call leopards?" Sprite finished her lasagna and her drink, and relaxed, basking in the warmth of the evening. She had just remembered the feeling of being drawn to David, too, and though it had felt different at the time, maybe it could be explained by the fact that she was his animal, as well.

"No," Dwayne shook his head. "It's actually pretty rare for a vampire to call any member of the big cat family, because they themselves are rarer than, well, wolves, for example. Usually only vampires created in areas that have high populations of a type of big cat will end up with the ability to Call them, and that's still pretty rare."

"Why? What makes it rare?" Sprite asked.

"First, not every master vampire can Call an animal. Each vampire has his or her own individual strengths, and sometimes that's just not one of them. It takes a great deal of power to exert a Call over an animal, over a number of your animals, and not everyone can do it. Second, like I said, normally your animal to Call is one that was physically abundant when and where you were created. I suppose that could be considered the vampire version of natural selection. Third, most of the power behind the Call comes from using it on wereanimals. And, as I'm sure you know, there just aren't as many wereleopards as werewolves, to use a relevant scenario. So Anna, created recently, and created here, has the power to Call wolves, and werewolves, because there is a large population of werewolves in Santa Carla, and because this area has had wolves, while I, created a long time ago, and in a much different location, can Call leopards, and wereleopards, because that was what was most available where I was before."

"Where were you before?" Sprite asked, and despite herself, Anna looked up at Dwayne, too, her interest piqued.

"Far away." Dwayne's smile faded and his face emptied of emotion. "And long ago."

"I'm sorry." Without thinking, Sprite reached out to touch his hand. Before the wereleopard could realize the danger she was in, Anna lashed out, her fingers wrapping around Sprite's wrist, and squeezed until the bones started to rub against each other.

"Shit, Anna!" Marko lunged across the table, struggling to drag Anna's hand off of Sprite. Sprite cried out, jerked against the vise that encased her wrist, knocked her wine glass to the floor, where it shattered, spreading blood-colored wine and shards that glimmered like crystal.

"Anna." Dwayne's voice was quiet, but resonated with power. She hesitated, and he reached out, placed one finger on the back of her hand. At once she released Sprite, who stumbled backward against her chair in her haste to get away. Anna's face tightened, and she dropped her chin just enough to spill blonde curls into her face, but didn't apologize, and didn't so much as look in Sprite's direction.

"I'm sorry, Sprite, Marko." Dwayne inclined his head to each in turn. "That shouldn't have happened." The waiter hurried over, though his face twisted into a grimace, and it was obvious he didn't want to deal with them. Dwayne dropped some money onto the table, adding a large tip to cover the damages, and stood, pulling Anna with him. "We'd better go. She hasn't eaten yet, and this is just going to get worse. It was good, to be away from the others. Sprite, it was wonderful to have the chance to speak with you. Keep your chin up; David's rough, but he'll come around eventually. Marko, you'd better be back at the cave early tonight, or I'm sure he'll be upset."

"Be safe, Dwayne." Marko glanced at Anna, worry visible in his eyes.

"I always am." Dwayne laughed, gifted Sprite with one final smile, and tucked Anna's arm beneath his, leading her toward the door. She didn't struggle, but her back remained stiff, tense, and her steps awkward.

~~**~**~~

"What the hell was that?" Anna withheld her outburst until she and Dwayne had arrived down at the Boardwalk, and had slid through the crowds into a back alley, dark with shadows. Two teenagers were huddled together under a fire escape, too wrapped up in each other to notice the intruders, but other than that, they had the area to themselves.

"What was what, Anna?" Dwayne ran one hand through her hair, careful not to catch his fingers on the curls. She shivered, and her shoulders started to slump, but before she could fully relax, she remembered what she was doing, and jerked away from him, hands on her hips, blue eyes flashing.

"That! She's not even a vampire, Dwayne. And she's not even yours. What was with the touchy feely bit? Why are you so damn happy around her? I've never seen you smile like that before, never. Not even for me."

"Oh, Anna." He chuckled, softly, causing her to bare her teeth and hiss at him. He laughed again and backed her against the wall, until she could evade him no more. One hand cupped her chin, lifting it so that she had to look at him, and the other stroked her hair once more. "So protective and so worried about everything. The ‘touchy feely' as you called it was nothing more than the enhanced comfort levels between a vampire and their animal to Call. You, out of anybody, should be able to understand that. You act just like that with your wolves … with Adam."

"But…." Anna's mouth tripped over her words and she stopped, confusion slipping into her expression. "But I don't change how I am, completely, when I'm with Adam and Victoria. They're my wolves, sure, but I act the same around them as I do anyone else. Don't I?"

"How can you?" Dwayne leaned in, brushed his lips over her temple, her forehead, her cheek. "Do you feel anyone else here?" His fingers brushed her collar bone, then her stomach. "Can you hear anyone else here?" He palmed the back of her head, massaging her scalp, leaning into her, his voice for her ears alone, dark and thick. "Of course you act different around your animals. They are a part of you in the most literal sense, and you are comfortable around them. They make you happy, they make you complete. Not even I can give that to you, Anna. I am your lover, but they are … they are what you have with a good family. And maybe you don't understand that, and why should you? But that closeness, that comfort, that's how real, good families work. Protection and comfort and love. Happiness. Look how much Adam and Victoria have given for you, to you, to make you happy, to make you sane." He stopped, almost surprised the torrent of words that spilled out into the night.

Anna murmured quietly, relaxed into him, and pressed her head back into his fingers. "It just bothers me, to see you smile at her, when you don't smile for me. She shouldn't be able to make you do something that I can't. I'm—I should be the one who's closest to you. No matter what you say about my wolves, I'm closer to you than to them. You come first, Dwayne, and I feel I should do the same. Shouldn't I?" She stopped, her voice cracking.

"You do." Dwayne kissed her chin, the tip of her nose, and tilted her head until she looked into his eyes. His lips quirked into a wry smile, small, but noticeable. "I smile for you, Anna, you just don't always see it. You come first for me, first and last and everything. I am nothing without you, Anna, nothing but a silent shell of myself. My Pack is my life, my safety, my strength, but you are my Pack and you are more, my Anna. Do not be jealous of a child—and she is a child, as far as leopard standards go, vampire standards. I wish to see her happy, yes, and strong, because I can feel her, just like you can feel Adam or Victoria. Just like you could feel any werewolf in the city if you tried. But you are my essence, and have nothing to be worried about."

"I'm such a human sometimes, pathetic as the rest of them." Anna forced herself to chuckle, trying to make light of the disgust than ran beneath her words. Dwayne shook his head, leaned in closer still, until he spoke against her lips.

"You are my very own Anna," he assured her. "And every thought or emotion is worth you experiencing, is something I want to know and cherish. You are strong, and powerful, as a human or as a vampire, and I could ask for nothing more."

And he kissed her, warm and dark in the alley, heavy with intent and promise.

~~**~**~~

Victoria pressed into Adam, marveling at his strength, and the emotion she felt every time he held her, even now, so many years after their first embrace. He lowered his mouth to her bare collar bone, nuzzled his nose and lips against her skin, his fingers kneading the muscles of her lower back.

He growled when she drew back, trailing her hands along his arms as she freed herself from his grip. "Adam, we came to enjoy the Boardwalk," she reminded him, her lips curving into a perfect, sensual smile. "There will be time enough to enjoy other things once we have completed our evening here."

Adam growled again, but couldn't hold back the laughter that rumbled in his chest. He let Victoria gather his hands in her own, and lead him out of the shadows and across the street to the neon-lit entrance of the Boardwalk. High overhead the Big Dipper cast its shadow down in a thick swatch across the sidewalk, but when they emerged into the crush of people gathered for the Fourth of July celebrations, the world was bright and noisy and full of frenzied activity.

Victoria could feel Adam breathe in deeply, and had to smile again. Though Adam acted like he was gruff and hated being in public, any kind of public, whether mortal or vampire or lycanthrope, she had noticed that he always took a moment to breathe in the scent of the crowd when they joined it, to glance around and settled into the ebb and flow of the life around them.

Tonight, instead of falling into a comfortable give and take with the crowd, Adam stiffened and sniffed again, trying to pinpoint just what had set his senses ablaze. Something was off about the crowd, or the Boardwalk, or the beach, or even just the night itself, and he struggled to put a name on it.

"What's wrong?" Victoria stepped into him, putting his chest against her back, and leaning her shoulders against him. He shook his head, placed his chin on the top of her head, and breathed deeply once more, sparking a similar reaction in her.

"There's something out there, Adam," Victoria shivered and frowned, leaning forward to try to follow the scent she had caught. Her nose twitched, and had anyone bothered to look close enough at her face, her eyes slowly bled through with the golden color of the wolf. Any unwanted attention was diverted by Adam's large presence at her back, and she turned to him, unnoticed by the mortals around them. "I smell…."

"Blood," Adam finished for her, his own wolf sliding just beneath the surface of his expression. His tongue flicked across his lips as he tasted the air, jerking his head back and forth in short, sharp movements.

Without speaking further, he twisted away from the crowds, and pushed toward the edge of the Boardwalk, where dark sand led to a darker ocean. Victoria fell into place just to his left and a step back, searching the rides and game booths for any sign of what they were sensing.

~~**~**~~

"Take my coat, you're shivering." Marko handed his shiny jacket to Sprite, who slid it on without hesitation. She still held the warmth inside from the dinner conversation, and couldn't help but smile and relax and enjoy herself, despite Anna's tension.

"Thank you." She hesitated, and then reached out, slipped her fingers through his. "Thank you for that, for dinner. I—I really appreciated it."

"You're welcome," he responded. "It was … Dwayne doesn't usually talk that much. It was different, but not bad."

"I enjoyed it," Sprite laughed and squeezed his hand. "And I'm enjoying this." Her smile quivered as she fought a blush. "Did you have any more plans for tonight?"

"I thought we'd watch the fireworks," he said, leading her through the crowds. He didn't command those around him silently, as David did, and didn't cut a swath of anger and strength as Anna might have, but he slipped in and out of the smallest spaces between the humans celebrating the holiday, and Sprite was surprised and pleased to realize he'd led her to the outskirts of the Boardwalk, where they could sit together on a bench and watch the fireworks go off over the water. "And maybe talk."

"Talking is—good." She stopped, her thoughts frustrating. There was so much she wanted to ask him, about the Pack, about Anna, about David—here she blanched and realized she was on dangerous ground.

"What's it like, being a wereleopard?"

Sprite sucked in a deep breath, surprised by his question. Overhead the first explosion of light and noise distracted her; she gazed up at it, watching until the tiniest sparks faded, and tried to gather her thoughts, and find an answer that wouldn't reveal the bitterness that flooded her body so strongly that she could feel it in her mouth, a dirty copper penny of distaste.

~~**~**~~

It was loud, with the crack of fireworks going off overhead, with the snap of individuals lighting firecrackers and throwing them to the ground, with the thrum of the crowd and the push of the ocean and the music blaring from speaker after speaker, each new store a new song.

Still, beneath it all, Victoria could hear the first scream, throbbing and low. It traveled to her from a great distance, and before she'd even had the chance to try to pinpoint the direction it came from, Adam was tense and in motion, arrowing through the crowds. People snapped to the side at his passage, muttered beneath their breath, but didn't dare try to stop the large man.

She hurried after him, listening intently for another sound, another cry to reveal what felt so wrong tonight, so off. It should have been just another crazy Boardwalk party, but it wasn't, and she didn't know why.

Ahead, Adam angled down the steps that led from the game and store area to the actual beach. The sand slowed her for a moment, before she adjusted to the new surface; by the time she caught up with Adam, they were in darkness, the fireworks overhead blocking out the stars, the revelers left far behind.

The blood scent hit them as soon as they were away from the crowds, heavy and heady and driving them forward at an even faster pace. Around the curve, where not even the reflection of the Boardwalk lights would reveal the transgressions, a bonfire smoldered, tiny coals glowing red, trying to lick flames into being, but the branches were thick and heavy with liquid, too wet to burn.

Victoria's vision twisted, falling into gray and black, a wolf's view of the scene. Here and there she could pick out the bodies—a leg here, a piece of a shoulder there. The coals sizzled, and she realized, from the acrid stench, that the logs weren't wet with ocean water, but with blood.

~~**~**~~

"It's bloody," Sprite said at last. "At first, all I could think about was the hunt, how the meat would be slick with blood, still warm from the chase. I wanted to devour any animal I met, humans too. I was almost a vegetarian when I was human, because of what I'd seen lycanthropes do. Now I can't go a day without something red and bloody."

"Do you hate it?"

"I did," she admitted. He slid an arm around her shoulders and she leaned into him, glad for the comfort. "It took everything away from me that I knew. My family, my food groups, my comfort with my body—everything changed, and I didn't have anyone to ask about it."

"What happened to the one who made you?"

"Killed. By my father, that very night." Sprite laughed, quietly. "I guess he figured he was doing me a favor, you know, avenging my ‘death'. But sometimes I wish he'd let the man live. Maybe he could have taught me something. Anything, to be more comfortable with what I was. Am."

"You don't seem awkward," Marko told her. She blushed and he ducked his head. "I mean, you seem familiar with yourself, if not necessarily comfortable or—happy."

"I am—happy, at least sometimes. I just wish I knew more. I'm sure I've bumbled through things that would have been easy, if I'd just had someone to teach me."

"Things have been quiet, and should stay that way, I hope," Marko said. "Maybe you could talk to Adam and Victoria. I know they're wolves and not wereleopards, but—the basic information can't be that different, can it? Maybe they could help you."

"Maybe," Sprite echoed, tilting her head up to watch a particularly bright burst of purple and green. "That would be nice. This—this is nice, too." Marko smiled at her, leaned closer, and pressed his lips to hers, gently.

"Yeah, nice," he murmured when he pulled back. She settled her head on his shoulder and cuddled close, content to watch the finale of the fireworks show and listen to the constant push of the ocean, the steady noise taking the place of his silent heart.

~~**~**~~

"How nice," Victoria's lip curled with distaste. "What a waste of a kill."

Adam looked up from where he knelt, examining one of the large pieces. "This was done by vampires," he told her, his eyes unreadable. "There are no bite marks, no sign of an animal attack. Something stronger than humans did this, but with human-shaped hands, and that just leaves vampires."

"Why would a vampire need to tear up a meal like this?" Victoria asked. She turned in a slow circle, her eyes narrowed as she tried to recreate the scene in her mind. "A bonfire party, lots of drunk humans—why not slip in and just eat? Why the destruction?"

"And why leave the mess here?" Adam added. "That just brings unwanted attention to anyone different." He stopped, stood in a quick, harsh movement. "Or maybe it's supposed to get attention. It's a statement, that's why the bodies are torn up, spread out here. A statement about what's going on in Santa Carla."

"A statement," Victoria repeated, nodding. "Or a warning, maybe." Their eyes locked and as one they turned, running, not back toward the lights of the Boardwalk, but for the edge of town and the woods that would shelter their frantic flight back to the Cave.


	3. Chapter 3

"A vampire kill, but no sign of the vampires?" David turned, his coat snapping back against his legs. Adam nodded, and squeezed Victoria's shoulder with one hand when she tried to shrink back away from David. "That's ridiculous."

"That's what we saw," Victoria said again, her voice low. "There were no signs of the killers, but it was definitely the work of a group of vampires--and as quickly as it looks like it happened, I would bet a pack of vampires, used to working together."

"That just can't be," David said. He tilted his head, tucking his chin against his right shoulder. The gathered vampires waited, silently, for his decision; it was slow in coming, and even Paul began to look uncomfortable, the longer David went without ordering them into action. "I've felt nothing on the wards, nothing at all."

At last David nodded, though he didn't clarify what he was agreeing with. "Adam, Victoria, please go spend the evening with Sprite." He held up one hand to ward off any argument, from them or from Marko. "She is an unknown element, no matter how you feel about her, Marko, and with this new development, I don't want her to be alone. If she's innocent of involvement in this act, then she might be in danger, after being associated with us. And if she is involved…."

"What do you want us to do, interrogate her?" Adam rolled his eyes, but grabbed his coat and handed one to Victoria, as well; the nights were still chilly, despite the heat of the days, and going without a jacket would too noticeably mark them as different.

"No, I do not. Don't say anything about what you've seen," David ordered. "Instead just spend time with her, as if you want to get to know her better. And keep your eyes open." He stopped, swallowed, and continued, his mouth twisted as if he tasted something bitter. "You are both wise and experienced. You know the signs of treachery to look for. And remember, you'll be making a full report to me when we all return here before sunrise."

"We'll tell you if we see anything unusual," Victoria touched Adam's arm, and the tension eased out of his body. She glanced at Marko, but said nothing more as she led Adam from the cave.

"Could you check on Rilly, too? Maybe keep her with you tonight?" Paul called out, risking David's anger at his addition to the plans. Adam stopped just inside the entrance and nodded, though he didn't look back.

"Michael, Star, go visit those slayers, the Frogs, and see if they know of any new vampire activity in town. Take Laddie with you, and watch out for anything suspicious. Dwayne, Marko start at the east end of town, and work your way in toward the Boardwalk. Paul, check the wards, all the wards around the edges of town, and meet up with them when you're done. Pay close attention downtown; this can't be the only kill the vampires have made, but we've not heard of any trouble at the Boardwalk, so the next logical place is there. Anna…." David stopped, his lips tightening. "Anna, you're coming with me. We're going to start at the beach, take a look at the kill site, and then head to the Boardwalk."

"But why am I with you--oh." Anna started to say something else, stopped again, and sighed, her shoulders slumping forward. "You're treating me like you're treating Sprite--I'm potentially dangerous, and you want to keep me under your eye, where I can't do any harm. I haven't done anything, David!"

"It doesn't matter," he replied. "Your experience is needed in this search, no matter what. I'd just rather have you where I know exactly what you're doing. Don't argue with me, Anna; we do not have a lot of time."

"Bastard," she muttered, but made no other argument.

"Ok, then," David shoved his hands into the pockets on his trench coat. "Watch each other's backs, and don't get killed. I think we're going to need each and every one of you to deal with this."

"David, why do you assume this will turn into some kind of attack on us?" Paul hopped down off of the fountain, and crossed his arms over his chest.

"A vampire kill, a messy vampire kill, in a fairly visible place? What else can it be but some kind of message? They didn't come to me for permission to hunt in our city. For that, we have reason to attack them. Besides…." he stopped, shook his head. "These days, when isn't it an attack on us?"

~~**~**~~

Dwayne and Marko searched in a spiral pattern, starting at the edge of town, and working their way in, sometimes riding their bikes, most often parking them and making their way on foot. The only thing out of place downtown was a group of men in camouflaged, with out of state plates on their trucks, who carried too many weapons and spoke just a little too quietly, but after almost fifteen minutes of listening from some distance away, Dwayne declared they were just hunters, probably poaching in the woods, and they let the men be.

"One more stop before we meet Anna and David?" Marko asked. He glanced up at Dwayne, who had been silent even for his normal reticence for the majority of the evening. Their search downtown had revealed nothing, though there was a tension at the edge of town that stuck with them, despite the fact that they could find no cause for it. It hadn't been much, just the feeling that they were being watched, and that something was different, that something familiar had been moved out of its place.

Dwayne nodded, and opened the door, stepping back so that Marko could walk inside first. The bar was dark and nearly empty, and quieter than either vampire had known a bar could be, at night at least. Marko led the way up to the counter, running a few different questions through his head as he tried to decide which way to proceed.

"Here you go," the bartender set a drink down in front of Dwayne immediately, a glass of aged whisky, neat, darker even than the shadows flowing across the wall behind him, where a mirror would normally have been. He started to place a glass of white wine next to it, but stopped when he looked at Marko. "No woman tonight, then?"

"What?" Dwayne frowned. "What's this?" The bartender had already moved away, however, called off by three men at the end wanting more beer and to change the channel on the television in the corner.

"That was--weird."

"Yes. It was."

"Guess someone looks like you, and the bartender's confused. Hope Anna doesn't get wind of this, though. She wouldn't know what to do with two of you around." Marko shook his head, glanced around the room. "Doesn't look like there are any potential leads here. We might as well take off and go meet Anna and David--there's only a couple of hours left until sunrise, and I'm sure David has something else planned."

"Of course he does," Dwayne said, his voice thoughtful as he picked up the glass and swirled the dark alcohol slowly. He felt a cold chill run along his back, placed the glass back down onto the bar top, and turned away quickly. "I've never known David to not have a plan b."

"All the way to a plan z, even," Marko forced a laugh and clapped Dwayne on the arm. "Come on, then. This place is too dead for me, and I don't want to be late, not with things as they are." They left in a hurry, too quickly to realize they were being watched by two figures crouching on the roof of the bar. The wind kicked up, and the long, dark hair of one of the figures whipped around its face, while it breathed in the scent of the departing vampires.

The figures didn't move until Marko and Dwayne had disappeared from sight, back around the corner at the end of the street, where they had parked their bikes in order to explore on foot. When the roar of the motorcycles started up in the distance, the figures took to the air, racing toward the north edge of town.

~~**~**~~

"Did you find anything?" Anna asked hopefully. Dwayne shut his bike off as he coasted to a stop to her right. Marko pulled up on David's left and dropped his legs, but not his kickstand, to hold his bike up.

"Nothing," Dwayne said, leaving it to Marko to elaborate.

"There were no signs of any big kills downtown," Marko said quietly, keeping his voice low so none of the humans who walked by could hear his non-human conversation. "Nothing much at the edge of town, either, just…."

"Just?" David prompted, glancing at Marko from the corner of his eyes.

"Just a bad feeling--my nerves, I guess," Marko admitted. "We didn't find anything that might have caused the bad feelings, just spots with negative energy. Anything could have done that, not just vampires. So it was pretty much a wash. What about you?"

"The number of missing persons has at least doubled, maybe tripled," Anna said. "And we know we're not making them disappear--so it seems there is a new vampire pack in town, killing without permission. We still don't know how they got in without setting off the wards, though."

"We will know more when Paul brings his report," David added. "Until then, there is no use speculating."

"We didn't find any hard evidence, either," Anna explained. "But the kill site made my skin crawl--kind of like your bad feelings, Marko, I guess. Something feels off, now that I'm actually paying attention to everything, but I can't figure out what."

"I hope Paul found something," Marko said. "Or we're back at square one, again."

"You don't hope we found something, though?" Michael laughed as he walked up, flanked by Laddie and Star. "I think we should be insulted."

David turned his head, slowly, and focused a stern gaze on Michael's face, until his smile faded away.

"Well, did you find anything?" Anna asked.

"Not much," Michael admitted, his head tilted slightly down. "When we went by the comic book store, it was closed."

"Closed?" Marko frowned. "I've never heard of them closing on a weekday."

"They're not supposed to close at all," Star said. "Not for days at a time. We asked the shops around them, and they haven't been open since last week."

"We went and talked to Michael's brother," Laddie explained. "Sam said that the Frog family went camping this weekend, but they were supposed to be back late last night, early this morning at the latest, to reopen the store, but he hasn't seen any sign of them, and he's worried. They're usually very punctual."

"More missing persons," Anna said, and tapped her fingers on her handlebars. "This isn't good. Maybe we should go look for them. Do you know where they were going to go camp?"

"I asked," Laddie said, "and Sam didn't know exactly where. He just said they weren't going too far up into the mountains, and that they always headed straight east, to find the best view of the sunrise."

"East…." Anna trailed off, and frowned. "That's where Marko felt some negative energy, and didn't know what had caused it. If they were camping, and got attacked--we have to go look for them."

"No!" David's one word stopped Anna in the middle of standing up in order to kick start her bike. "Anna, there are more important things to worry about right now than the disappearance of those slayers."

"Like what?" Anna argued. "Their disappearance could very well be tied into what we're trying to take care of. If we find them, or find out what happened to them, maybe we'll find out more of what's going on."

"We need to take care of our own people, first."

"But the Frogs are our people, in a way!" Anna stopped, dragged in a slow, unneeded breath. "I mean, they've helped us before--and Sam is Michael's brother, even if he is a human. And they are Sam's friends. We need to keep an eye on them, help them like they've helped us."

"Anna, they're humans," David laughed, shook his head. "They can never be our own. We need to go check on Paul; he's late getting back. I want to see what's taking him so long with the wards."

"So a couple of people can go with you to check on him, and a couple can go with me to check on the Frogs," Anna said. "What's the big deal, David? Are you afraid you're not going to look like a big bad vampire if you show a little compassion toward humans? Humans who have helped save your life, need I remind you?"

"Anna!" David stood, the lines of his body tensed and vibrating with barely restrained energy. "I said that we need to check on Paul, and that the slayers are nothing to us. Why do you continue to question me?"

"Because you're wrong, David!" Anna exploded, her words coming in quick bursts, her own body tight and ready for battle. "And you're being an idiot about this. If this situation is as dangerous as you seem to think, we're going to need all the help we can get, and like it or not, the Frogs are our allies, and we need to help them if we can. If you won't do it, I will, and I'm going to take Adam and Victoria with me." She kicked her bike to life with more force than was necessarily, but the sudden noise didn't cover her next words. "You'd better open up your eyes, David, and take a look at the whole picture, because things are changing, and if you don't watch out, you're going to become obsolete." She punctuated her words with a cloud of debris kicked up from the force of her wheels squealing along the sidewalk and down into the street.

"Leave it!" David snapped when Dwayne started to follow. "We're going to check on the wards and see why the hell Paul hasn't reported in yet." He shoved his bike forward, causing it to rock dangerously, and come close to running over a pair of hapless tourists. "With or without Anna, we've still got Pack things to take care of."

~~**~**~~

"How did you find us?" Sprite asked first thing when she'd opened the door to find a frustrated, fuming Anna pacing back and forth on the steps. Anna had glared balefully at her for a moment, before she dropped her shoulders and her guard, and offering a quick explanation.

"Bonded to the wolves," she said. "I can feel them, where they are. Not an exact science, but when it's important, I can make it work. And it's important."

"What is?" Adam stood and moved to Anna's side, placing one hand on her arm, not because she seemed distraught, and not because he thought she needed to take strength from him; instead he couldn't quite stop himself from touching her, nor from opening his other arm to Victoria, who came to stand next to him, one arm around his waist, her eyes fixed on Anna's face.

"The Frog family has disappeared," Anna said. "So has Paul. David went off to look for him, but refused to do anything to help Edgar and Alan, just because they're human." She stamped her foot, lips twisted into a sneer. "Damn him. He's right to look for Paul, but we owe it to the Frogs, too."

"So we'll go look for them," Adam promised, squeezing her arm. "Where were they last seen?"

"Somewhere in the woods, I guess," Anna replied. "They were supposed to go camping, but I don't know where. I'd say we should just search the woods, but there's so much of it, and we don't have a lot of time." She stopped, shook her head. "I don't know if we do or not, actually, but something feels wrong about this whole situation, and that usually means we're running out of time to find answers."

"I'll help you search," Sprite offered. She crossed her arms over her chest, and struggled to keep her voice steady, though she could still feel her fear of Anna trickling through her mind. "Another pair of eyes might help, and I've spent a lot of time in the woods around here lately."

Anna looked at Sprite, weighing the younger woman's worth for a moment in her mind, and nodded. "I think we should go talk to Sam Emerson first, see if he knows anything else. Star and Michael said he didn't remember much, but I don't like getting all my information second hand. We'll check in with him, and then head out, begin our search tonight."

They started out the door, only to stop when Anna hesitated, and turned back to Sprite.

"I don't distrust you like David does," she told the girl, "but I don't know you to trust you either. Marko usually has good instincts, though--don't prove him wrong. Don't prove me wrong, not as long as you're with my wolves. I'd hate to have to avenge an injury to one of them. You wouldn't like me much, then."

It was on the tip of Sprite's tongue to admit she didn't like her much, now, either, but she bit back the words, and silently nodded, keeping her distance as the werewolves followed Anna out of the apartment and into the cool night.

"Do you want to get Rilly to help?" Victoria asked Anna. "She was here with us for awhile, but said she was tired and wanted to get some rest."

"She'd just slow us down in the woods," Anna said after considering it for a moment. "We don't need a human around for this."

~~**~**~~

"Nothing at the lighthouse, nothing on the road between Santa Carla and Watsonville, nothing in the woods, nothing here, nothing." David spat the words out with more intensity than he had meant to use, and paused, wiping one hand down his face. "I just don't understand how any outsiders could have gotten past the wards without setting at least one off. There is even a ward that activates if any of you reenter without me prepping it for your arrival."

"You trust us that little?" Marko asked, his face creased into a frown.

"Trust has nothing to do with it," David waved away his disproval. "Hundreds of leadership coups have occurred because someone on the inside either got tired of being commanded or became a pawn in someone else's game. I do this to protect you all, Marko. There's nothing more to it than that."

"That's ridiculous, David," Marko shook his head, his expression still troubled. "After all we've been through, how can you think any one of us could betray you, or be used to hurt the Pack? Surely you know us all better than that."

"As of late, I know nothing at all," David said, his voice low, distracted. "Too many newcomers to the Pack can signify trouble ahead, because I cannot trust those who have come so recently."

"You mean Sprite." The words sounded flat even to his own ears, and Marko clenched his fists.

"I mean Sprite, Anna, Shauna, the werewolves--anyone new is a potential threat, and you would recognize that fact, if you didn't allow yourself to become blinded by a pretty face or by tantalizing words." Before Marko could say anything else, David held up a hand and silenced him. "I've felt something, be quiet."

Laddie patted Marko's hand while they waited. David turned toward the ocean, though it was hidden by the city and a large hill, and then back toward the trees, his brow furrowed. Deliberately he sniffed the air, and then closed his eyes, concentrating on something that none of the others could sense.

This last ward point was directly diagonal from the Cave, and the strongest of the places they'd stopped to check. It was nestled in the hills outside of town, far up the road toward San Jose, and though Marko had never been there before, he had recognized the place by the power radiating from it, and the fact that it almost jangled, as if there was a discordant sound to it that he couldn't quite hear.

"There is something here," David said at last. His eyes were still closed, and one hand stretched out in front of his stomach, his elbow bent, fingers stroking the air. "Nothing broken, just--tweaked. No wonder it was so difficult to notice." He opened his eyes and focused his sharp gaze on Marko's face. "The wards here have been shifted around to let someone--or many someones--in. Only someone already on the inside could have touched the wards like that. Someone in the Pack."

Marko had to look away.

~~**~**~~

The pictures of the comic were clear, but the words seemed to blur together every time Sam looked at them. He'd been trying to read the same page for almost twenty minutes, and finally gave up, tossing it to the floor and flopping backward on the bed. He'd only been skimming through it to keep his mind off of the fact that he still hadn't heard from Edgar and Alan, but it was useless.

Something scratched at his window; Sam flicked off the lamp next to his bed, and sat up, slowly. His back was tense, and he listened so hard that when the second scratch came, it was overly amplified in his ears. He eased himself off of his bed, and turned to face the window.

There, a pale face was framed, and he yelped, biting back the scream that tried to follow.

"Sam!" The words were muffled by the closed window, but he could just make out his name. "Sam, let me in!" He shook his head, searching the room with his eyes alone, trying to remember where he'd dropped his stake after the last time he'd gone vamp hunting with his friends. "Sam, it's Anna, at least open the damn window! I want to talk to you about the Frogs."

Finally he scooted forward, unlocked the window with shaking fingers, and opened it, hurrying backward before she could grab him. Anna rested her arms on the windowsill, and frowned at him, but decided against saying anything about his fear.

"Sam, do you know where the Frogs were going to camp?" she asked. "I want to go look for them, but I'm not sure where to start."

"I don't know," Sam said, his voice high-pitched. "Mike already asked me, you know. I don't have any other information that can help."

"Are you sure?"

"Don't you think I'd tell you if I did?" He slammed his fist into the palm of his right hand. "Damn it, I'm worried about them! Don't you think I'd do anything I could to help?"

"Of course I do," Anna tried to soothe him. "But maybe there's something you know that you don't recognize. Laddie said that you thought they'd go directly east. East from where? Just from town? Or from the comic book shop?"

"East from town, I think," Sam said, frowning as he tried to think. "No, wait. East from the intersection where Highway 17 breaks off and heads toward the university to the left, and back up to San Jose on the right. There's supposed to be this little road, more of a trail, I guess, that goes up into the mountains from around there. I forgot about it earlier, because they didn't mention it when they told me about their trip, but they've talked about it before, and I know they really like it up there."

"Thanks, Sam, that gives us some place to start our search," Anna forced a smile for him. "We'll be sure to check back here, let you know if we find anything."

"No!" Sam grabbed his shoes, glad that he hadn't yet changed for the night. "I'm going with you. They're my friends, after all, and maybe I'll notice something you miss." He recognized the skeptical look on her face. "It could happen, you know. I know more about them than you do, and besides that, you can't be everywhere at once. The more people we have looking for them the better, right? Besides, I have a key to the Frog arsenal--we'll need weapons, and those will be the best in town."

"You're right," Anna admitted. She started to drop back to the ground and then hesitated. "I can't guarantee we're going to find anything at all, Sam, and even if we do, it might not be good. There are some new vampires in town, it seems like, real killers, and if the Frogs ran into them, well--I can't make any promises."

Sam's smile was weak, but he didn't want to just write off his hope, couldn't just give up on them. "Yeah, well, it's a good thing that Edgar and Alan are real fighters then, isn't it?"

~~**~**~~

Within the hour, Anna, the weres, and Sam were gathered in the woods outside of Santa Carla, sporting weapons acquired from the storage room of the comic book shop, and almost vibrating out of their skins with tension.

"Can you scent anything?" Anna asked Adam and Victoria. "We don't know how far back they would have gone, and I know it's been a few days, but I'm hoping you'll be able to find--something. Anything."

"Nothing yet, Anna, but we'll keep trying," Victoria assured her. She and Adam fanned out, keeping level with each other as they each took opposite sides of the path. Sprite followed them, despite the fact that Anna hadn't said anything to her, breathing in deeply, and enjoying the clear night air, even under the less than ideal circumstances.

"I haven't seen their jeep yet, either," Sam said, staring at the ground, even though he could make neither heads nor tails of the overlain tracks, couldn't even tell which were fresh and which were older. "Even if something horrible has happened to them, wouldn't that still be here? Especially if we're dealing with vampires who have been leaving obvious scenes of the kill."

"I would assume so," Anna said, "but I don't know anything about what might have happened or who might have done it. The beach kill could have been the first time they wanted to leave a message; they could have covered their tracks here, cleanly."

"I've got something," Sprite said, breaking into the conversation. She was far up the path, at the top of a hill, and had her face turned into the wind, gulping it down in deep breaths. "Nothing much, just a faint scent, but it's there."

Adam joined her, and then turned to look at Anna, his face unreadable. "It's blood scent, an air scent," he said, keeping his voice low. "A couple of days old, to be honest. We can try to follow it, but if the wind dies off, and we haven't found a ground scent yet, we'll lose it."

"Go on, then," Anna said, motioning him away with both hands. "Run it. I'll follow at Sam's pace. We'll meet up at the end of the trail, or when you lose it, either way."

Adam nodded, and was gone in a burst of intangible power and a quick, dark blur, followed almost immediately by Victoria, and then Sprite. Anna pulled her jacket tighter around her body, and glanced down at Sam.

"Are you sure you're up to this?" she asked. "You don't know what we might find."

"Neither do you," he muttered. "Let's just go, already." He trudged up the hill, leaving Anna to follow.

When they caught up with the werewolves and Sprite, the three stood in a loose semicircle, staring into the center of a moonlit clearing. Here and there, a tatter of dark green tent canvas flapped in the wind, and in the very center, something metal glinted from where it was half buried in the stained dirt.

"Oh, shit," Sam said, and then stopped, unable to go any farther.

Anna walked past him, and into the clearing. She could smell the faint remnant of blood, so light she was amazed that the weres had picked up on it from such a distance. She knelt and scratched at the earth, uncovering the bit of metal; when it was clean of dirt, she realized it was part of a pair of dog tags, and her stomach lurched.

When Anna stood and looked back at the others, she was startled by the hunger painted across Adam and Victoria's faces. The smell was getting to them, she realized, and knew she'd have to let the wolves hunt before they went back to the Cave, after getting their energy up with the run, and after the scent of bloodshed.

"Do you recognize this?" she asked Sam, extending the dog tag after only a moment's hesitation. She didn't want to show it to him, because she was afraid he would recognize it, and she didn't want him to have to deal with the significance that the chain was broken, or that the edge was crusted with blood.

"It's Edgar's," Sam said, his voice weak. "He never takes it off." He blinked, hard, and repeated himself. "Oh, shit."

"Sam, I'm--I'm sorry," she said, quietly, and put one hand on his shoulder.

"You don't know they're dead," his voice was still quiet, but fierce now, throbbing with the anger and worry and pain that filled his eyes. "You don't know that!"

"I--" Anna shook her head. "I don't know. But from the looks of this…."

"I know," he wiped the back of his hand across his eyes, and then grabbed the dog tag from her, gripping it until his fingers turned white. "I know."

"Do you think this was a random kill?" Adam asked as he walked closer, his face a mask to hide his inner turmoil from Sam. It wouldn't do for the boy to know that food was the first thought the smell of the blood had given him, not when the blood came from the boy's friends. "Or was this plotted out?"

"Random, I guess," Anna started to say, but Sam interrupted.

"Oh! I forgot, I was so distracted." He had to stop and swallow hard, but when he continued, his voice was steady. "We did leave town a couple of weeks back, to check out this vampire disturbance. I wonder if this has to do with that."

Anna pressed her lips together into a tight line as she gazed steadily at him, and then nodded. "Ok then, back to the Cave with you. You need to tell me more about that disturbance, and we need to talk to David about all of this."

She motioned for Sprite to join them. "Can you and Sam start back?" she asked. "I just want to check out one more thing, and then I'll be on my way, and we'll head back to the Cave. You'd better head home once we're clear of the woods, Sprite. I don't know how David would react to you being there, not right now."

Once they were out of sight, Anna turned back to Adam and Victoria. "Go, hunt," she told them. "Keep an eye out for anything unusual, and take care of each other." Her voice was fierce, and she hugged them both spontaneously, tightly. "I meant what I said earlier. I'd hate to have to avenge either of you. Come back to me before sunrise, please, so I know you're ok."

They started to go, but she stopped them once more. "And Victoria, Adam, if you happen to stumble on any of those who did this--leave me one alive to question. The rest--kill." She blinked back tears, angry at herself for the show of emotion. "They were good kids, and their parents were innocent of all of the problems here. They deserved better than this. No matter what David says, they were our responsibility, too, and we failed them. I don't mean to fail them again."

~~**~**~~

"Come sit by us, Sam," Star said, sliding over and patting the space on the couch between her and Michael. He circled around the edge of the room, not wanting to cross the center and walk too close to David, who paced back and forth with quick, sharp movements.

"Still no sign of Paul," David said, catching Anna up to date quickly. She frowned, but sat down next to Dwayne, not sure what felt so wrong about the description of the change in the wards. "Sam, Anna says you have something to tell us."

"I don't know if it has anything to do with any of this," Sam admitted. "A couple of weeks ago, Edgar, Alan, and I--" He had to stop and swallow hard, stare at the ceiling before he could continue to speak. "They had been taking off for whole days at a time, right after school let out. It took them awhile to tell me, but eventually Alan said that they were checking out these rumors they'd been hearing, rumors about strange sounds and occurrences in the mountains closer to San Jose. They didn't have a lot of details, but it seemed that something was coming down from farther north, and they had even plotted out the different places the rumors mentioned."

"They plotted it out?" David repeated. "Actually plotted it on a map?"

"Yeah." Sam dug into his pocket, and, after pulling out a wadded up piece of tissue paper, and three gum wrappers, he removed a piece of paper, folded and refolded into a tiny square. "They made me a copy, and I thought I'd take it with us into the woods, just in case we found something that looked familiar." He touched the dog tags he'd shoved into his other pocket, hesitated, and then unfolded the paper, and passed it around to David.

A hand-drawn map covered most of the page, a quick sketch, really, covering the woods and mountains outside of Santa Carla. There were few details, only a road here, and the coastline there, just enough to put the plotted places into perspective.

Across the page, tiny squares marked the places that Edgar and Alan had investigated the odd rumors; after just a quick glance, it became apparent that the spots formed a loose semi-circle around one central location.

"So that spot is what they were aiming for?" Marko asked, pointing to the very center of the semi-circle, which ended at the coastline at either edge. Sam shrugged, and leaned back against the couch, glad that his brother sat on one side and Star on the other, making him feel marginally safe.

"I guess. Like I said, we never found any real details, just the rumors. Once in awhile, we'd find a little blood, but never enough to determine if it had been some animal killed there by another animal, or something else. If they found anything more, they didn't tell me, and I don't think they would have kept something that important secret."

"It certainly does look like they--whoever they are--were moving around this location," David said. He frowned down at the map, and then lifted his head, meeting Marko and Dwayne's eyes in turn. "That location seems to be where the altered ward is, did you notice that? They moved down from the north, circled the wards to test them, and then someone let them in, like wolves stalking livestock in a barn, but this time, the farmer opened the door wide."

"That's the second time you've mentioned someone on the inside helping, David," Dwayne said, keeping his voice low and his gaze away from Anna, not wanting to start another fight between her and David, but also unwilling to let David's provocative statements go by. "Just who do you think let them in, if that's indeed what happened?"

"That's how it had to have happened," David said again, his voice becoming hard. "The wards that were changed are the ones that require knowledge of the Pack--they are marked to your blood, all of yours, and no one but one of us could have changed it. And since most of us are here…."

"You can't be suggesting that Paul did this?" Anna burst out, jumping to her feet. "That's ridiculous, David. Out of all of us, I think I'd probably suspect Paul least of all--I'd believe you'd betrayed us before I'd believe he did."

"Oh yes, Anna, and your loyalty has been proven so much that your opinion is of the utmost importance to what the truth of the matter is," David drawled the words out, his lips twisted into a sneer. "And you've never shown any bias toward Paul, not at all."

"I haven't, David," Anna stopped before she could say anything else damaging. Instead she drew in a slow breath, and then another, concentrating on stopping the tremors that shook her fingers. When she was calmer, she tried again. "Just because Paul is missing doesn't mean that he's a traitor. Maybe they had come back to do something else to the wards, and he caught them there. Maybe he's off somewhere, chained and injured. Maybe he's dead."

"Maybe," David allowed. "Or maybe he's sentenced us all to death."

"You can't think it's as bad as that," Marko broke in. "We're strong, David, no matter how much you worry. We might get hurt, but as long as we work together as a Pack, we're going to survive."

"I would hope so," David said. "But I can't know that for sure. This pattern of movement looks much like what a vampire pack would do if it was to move into the area with the intention of expanding its territory--too much like what I would do. I hope we will be strong enough to hold our land, but Santa Carla is a stronghold that has been breached, for the first time. We've never really been challenged, at first because Max's reputation kept most challengers away, and then because our own reputation had spread so far, though I doubt many of you understand the true extent of our reputation. But we have been breached, Marko, and that means that someone isn't scared of us, or isn't scared of a final death. And someone not afraid is someone who could, potentially, destroy us all."


	4. Chapter 4

When Sam woke up, he blinked once, and then again, disorientated by the faint light and musty smell. He sat up, and rubbed his lower back when it protested a day spent sleeping on a narrow couch.

The sunlight was gone from the little bit of night sky that he could see through the entrance, and farther back in the maze of caverns, he could hear the vampires stirring. He was surprised that he had slept all the way to sunset, but he hadn't been able to fall asleep easily once the sun had risen, and had tossed and turned for many hours before he'd finally dozed off.

He wiped sleep from his eyes and groaned, hoping the ache in his head would fade. They'd talked well into the night, until close to dawn, and he knew he'd need all his wits about him if he was going to help the vampires again that night. They wanted to search the woods one more time, and then explore the Boardwalk, see if they couldn't draw out whoever was paying so much attention to them.

Lack of sleep made his head throb, but he knew it was also stress and worry because the Frogs were still missing, and he was no closer to finding them. The tension between the vampires didn't help him feel any better; he wanted to trust that they'd be able to learn more than he would, but if they bickered as they had been, they might miss something. Besides, David didn't seem willing to give him any help at all, even if he had brought important information to them. Michael would stick by him, and Star, but he didn't want to help tear the vampires apart, not right now, when they had their own problems to deal with.

"Edgar would be so disappointed in me," Sam said, his voice quiet in the stillness of the main room of the cave. "Me actually wanting to help vampires. Not much else I can do, I guess."

"No, not really," Michael patted Sam's shoulder and sat down on the couch next to him. "You did the right thing, Sam, and I'm sure Edgar will understand, if…." He trailed off, unwilling to say something that would hurt his brother, even though they both knew what the other was thinking.

"We're still going out into the woods, right?" Sam asked.

"Yeah," Anna answered as the others filed in, mostly silent, and more than a little discontent. "Back to the woods, and then back to the Boardwalk. And if we haven't turned up anything then, well--I'm out of ideas."

"And that, of course, is quite a shame," David said, his face carefully blank. Anna just shook her head, and ignored him.

"And I'm still coming with you, right?" Sam asked, ignoring the bickering.

"Actually, we have another job for you," Marko forced himself to smile. "I know we agreed not to tell your mother and grandfather what was going on, so they wouldn't worry, but one of them will notice that the Frogs have gone missing. We want you to head to Max's old store, and update your mother with everything you know--and tell Rilly, too."

David made a noncommittal noise, and turned away at her name.

"But I want to go with you--I want to help!" Sam ignored the additional tension that flared up with the mention of Rilly, and turned to face Marko, when David didn't look at him.

"You will help," Marko said. "Carrying information is helping, and you can do that better than you can help us in the woods. Anna's wolves are going to look for ground scents again, spread out and cover more area. You'll just slow us down, Sam. A Pack hunt is not the place for a human. Go talk to your mother, and that will be help enough."

"Fine," he huffed, and crossed his arms over his chest. "Should I tell Rilly that Paul is missing?"

"Tell her everything," Anna said, her voice hard. She frowned at David's back, but didn't directly address her leader. "She has a right to know, human or not. We'll be back at the Boardwalk later tonight, and you can meet us there--so can she, if she's willing."

"That's enough," David said, sweeping his coat around his body. "We ride now."

"I'll drop you off in town," Michael said as David led the others out, "and catch up with them in the woods after. Tell Mom I said hi, and that we're really doing all right. This is bad but--we'll be fine. I don't want her to worry too much."

"Of course she's going to worry, Mike," Sam shook his head. "My friends are missing, your friends are being threatened--she's not going to know how to deal with this."

"Tell her to talk to Grandpa," Michael said. "He might have some ideas about what's going on, and even if he doesn't, he'll know how to calm her down, give her a little bit of hope."

"This is Grandpa you're talking about, you remember that, right?" Sam laughed. "I don't know if he knows how to calm anyone down, much less Mom. He's not the most tactful person."

"But he does know vampires," Michael said. "And right now, that might be more comfort than you'd think."

~~**~**~~

"Hi, Sam," Rilly smiled at him when he entered the video store, accompanied by the tinkle of the bells over the door, but the expression didn't quite reach her eyes, and she looked down at the counter after only just a moment.

"Hi, Rilly. Is my mom still here?"

"Of course, she's back in the office. Do you want me to get her?"

"No thank you, I'll do it, but Rilly--I need to talk to you. To both of you. It's important, and I really don't want to have to repeat the story twice. If mom says it's ok, will you lock up early so we can talk?"

"But Sam--it's not even ten p.m. yet. We can't close that early, most of our customers come in between ten and midnight," Rilly argued.

"It's important," Sam repeated, and hurried back to the office door, knocking, but not waiting for his mom to answer before he opened it.

"Sam! What a nice surprised," Lucy stood, and reached for her son, before she saw the expression on his face and dropped her arms back to her sides. "What's wrong?"

"I know it's early, but could you guys close up shop, please?" Sam asked, his voice suddenly ragged. He'd unconsciously used a phrase that he heard almost on a daily basis when he was with Edgar and Alan, and he wanted to stagger beneath the weight of all the possible things that could have happened to them. "At least long enough for me to talk to you. Things are--things are really bad right now, Mom, and I need you."

"Of course," Lucy said, though it wasn't clear if she meant that they could close early or if she had always known he would need her when things got tough. "Come sit down, Sam, and you, too, Rilly, after you lock the door. Tell me all about it."

Sam kept his explanation short, because he didn't trust his voice to carry through longer sentences, and because he didn't want to frighten his mother any more than he already would, but by the time he was coming to the end of his speech, her eyes were wide and her hands were clenched together in her lap.

"And that's not all," he said, stopping to take a drink from the glass of water Rilly had given him before she sat down. "Edgar and Alan are still missing, but…." He trailed off, and had to look away from Rilly's bright eyes, intense gaze. "Paul went out to check their protection stuff, like I said, but he never came back. They still don't know where he is and … and David seems to think he has something to do with all of this. But I don't believe him." His last words came quick, a burst of air and fear and desperation.

For a heartbeat, Rilly looked as if she might break down into tears, or leap to her feet, grab the nearest item that could be used as a weapon, and destroy the room itself. Instead she wrapped her arms around her waist and pulled herself together, quite literally as her mind worked furiously to gather all her thoughts and reactions and tuck them away where she could deal with them later.

As Sam and Lucy watched, both worried about what the distraught woman might do, she sat up until her back was steel-bar straight, and very carefully folded her hands in her lap, her head tilted just to the left.

"Are they out searching for him--for everyone tonight?" she asked, her voice more calm and steady than she expected.

"Yes, they are," Sam set his glass down on his mom's desk, and stared hard at Rilly. "I'm supposed to meet them at the Boardwalk later. They said you can come, too, if you want."

"David said that?"

"No," Sam admitted. "Anna did, but it doesn't matter. You should come … you know … if you want to…." He trailed off again, because he didn't have words for her, when she seemed to have no real reaction to the knowledge that Paul was missing.

"I want to," Rilly said, and lowered her head, closing her eyes when her chin rested on her chest. Lucy stood up, and Sam wondered if she was going to touch Rilly's shoulder, but instead she crossed to her son, sat down next to him, and opened her arms to him once more.

This time he leaned forward, pushing his face into her shoulder, and letting her envelope him in a tight hug, her body curved around him as she tried to hold off the pain of the real world, no matter how fantastical, and protect her son, at least for one more moment.

~~**~**~~

"Wolves on the ground," David ordered. He slipped from his bike, and left it in the shadows at the edge of the clearing. He scanned it quickly, taking in the tiny scraps of green tent, and the faint traces of blood. "Sweep out until you find something. Be sure to bark when you do."

"We do not bark," Victoria gathered her coat around her, looking for all the world as if she should be pulling at full skirts and staring down her nose at some impertinent commoner. "But we will find some way to make you understand that we were successful."

"You do that," David turned away, gazing up at the sky. "Sprite." He stopped, frowned at the girl Marko had insisted could help. "Go with them, you'll be no use in the air. Marko, Dwayne, head out to the eastern edge of the woods, as far as you can, and then come back in, flying low. Maybe we'll sweep something out of the trees. Laddie, Star, Michael, head back toward town, and come in toward the wolves, keeping low. Anna and I will go up, see if we can't find some more information from a bird's eye point of view."

"Why am I always with David?" Anna murmured into Dwayne's ear, trying hard to keep David from hearing. If he had, he gave no sign.

"Any questions?" No one spoke. "Good. Then let's get on with it. Be quick, but thorough; I don't want to have to come back out here again because someone missed an important detail. Remember, stay close together, and keep your senses open. We don't know what's going to happen and right now, we don't even know who is on our side."

Anna snorted, but didn't say anything, and waited for David to take off before she followed him into the night sky. The others spread out, the vampires moving quickly through the air. Adam, Victoria, and Sprite took the time to remove their clothes, fold them, and place them at the base of one of the trees, ready to collect when they regrouped in the clearing, though Sprite ducked into the shadows to strip and didn't come out until she was fully in leopard form.

A moment later, two wolves and a leopard darted into the forest, running on all fours; one wolf had his nose in the air, the other her muzzle pressed to the ground, as they tried to find any trace of a scent.

Anna could just make out Marko and Dwayne as they faded into the distance, flying low enough that their passage disturbed the tops of the trees. She sighed, and flew higher, until she was level with David.

"Just what do you think we'll see from up here?" she asked, lifting her voice so she could be heard over the rush of air that surrounded them.

"Something that doesn't belong," David said, his voice low enough that she almost couldn't pick out his words. "Anna, I brought you up here for more than one reason. We need to talk."

"Damn," Anna rolled her eyes, and then twisted her body, rolling around in midair so that her hair whirled in front of her face. "What is it, David? I thought you wanted us all to pay attention to what was going on down there, not get distracted."

"That's why I brought you up here. The others know what they're doing; they can be unsupervised for a moment at least."

"They do know what they're doing!" Anna snapped. Their flying had settled into a large, slow circle that drifted over the clearing and the woods, far below. "And they don't need your supervision, David. That's what started this whole problem."

"No, Anna, this problem started because I have been too lenient in letting newcomers into my Pack. I have opened our doors to far too many creatures that have not proven their worth. We are weakened, and this has allowed others to breach our security."

"But you think Paul helped them, David!" Anna twirled again, watching as ground became sky and then ground again before her eyes, unable to keep steady. "That means that one of your own people, one you've been with for ages, is the problem. Not that I believe Paul did it, but that's not important. You do!"

"But before the newcomers joined us, I would have better been able to see the problems growing within Paul. I could have cut away the danger at its source, and not let the situation grow to such a dire state. If, indeed, it is Paul who betrayed us."

"If?" Anna stumbled on the word, and turned her head until she could see David, though his gaze was still focused on the ground, unwavering.

"Yes, Anna. I admit, I do not want to believe that one who has been a part of my Pack for so long would betray us all. It is much more likely that a newcomer would be a part of the problem."

"You mean me." Anna's voice was flat, and she clenched her hands into fists at her sides.

"I was referring to no one," he said. "But if you immediately jump to that conclusion, perhaps there is something weighing at your mind, some guilt that you should reveal to your Pack leader."

"Damn it, David, I'm not the one who did this! I don't betray my family, and that's what this Pack is, an unworldly family."

"In ways, you've already betrayed us, Anna. And even if I discount your attacks on Dwayne and Laddie, your constant undermining of my authority, you betrayed your mortal family. Why should I believe you would do anything less to your immortal one?"

"I betrayed my what?" Anna snapped.

"Oh, yes, Shauna told me all about what you were before you came to Santa Carla," David laughed, pitching the sound so low that it seemed to crawl along Anna's skin. "She told me how you refused to follow orders, how you broke all the rules, how you eventually betrayed their trust and ran, leaving them to clean up your messes. How soon until you leave us, Anna, leave us with the destruction you've caused?"

Anna could feel the anger boil within her stomach, surging up her throat, desperate for release. Instead of screaming at David, or launching herself at him, fangs and claws bared, she swallowed hard, once, and again, and turned her body in three tight circles before she responded.

"David, Shauna was trying to tear the Pack apart. Her words were seeds of discord meant to destroy us. You banished her from our ranks; how can you now claim to believe anything she said? If she had not been forced to leave the city, I would believe that she was the facilitator to all this trouble." Anna stopped speaking, and her eyes widened. She glanced at David again, and this time he met her gaze, his face unreadable.

"Fog's coming up," he said at last, and angled himself toward the ground. "It is time to see what the others have found."

Back in the clearing, the weres had already gotten dressed again, and were waiting for the vampires somewhat patiently--Victoria had taken a seat on a large rock, but Adam paced in circles, his shirt unbuttoned and snapping behind him like a tail. Sprite sat on the ground at the base of Victoria's rock, her legs tucked up tight against her body, arms wrapped around her knees.

"Did you find anything?" Anna asked, her mind bubbling over with so many new thoughts and worries that she wasn't sure how to handle them all.

"Nothing," Adam spat out, his eyes dangerous. "There is nothing here. It is as if they flew out of the clearing, taking every piece of information with them, except for the tidbits of nothing that they left to torment us."

"They very well may have," David said. He tilted his head, listening to the sound of Marko and Dwayne rapidly approaching. "This might not have been a message for us, as the beach kill was, but they had to know we would find this eventually. The less they leave for us to follow, the longer they have to implement their plan--whatever it is."

Anna opened her mouth, trying to decide what comment to start with, but before she could speak, the echo of a scream slid through the air, rebounding off of the trees until it filled her ears.

"That was Star," David said decisively, already taking to the air. "Something is wrong." Anna jumped after him, and the wolves and Sprite started to run, splitting their attention between the woods around them, and the quick passing of the vampires as they careened toward the sound. Marko and Dwayne felt their passing and fell into place behind David, flying in his wake, like so many large birds.

When the vampires reached the point, a soft curve of land stretching out into sea just above the lighthouse, at first the scene was hidden, blocked by the fog that clung to their faces, pressed into their mouths, until Anna was thankful she didn't have to breathe.

David dropped, suddenly, careening toward through the thick, gray fog until Anna could barely see his passing. Without thinking, she flung herself after him, all her senses focused on following him where he would lead.

She saw the ground an instant before she slammed into it, and managed to pull out of her dive just enough to land on her feet, though she staggered ungracefully. The others managed better landings, but it didn't matter, because before any of them could get their bearings, the attack came.

Anna was knocked to the ground immediately, and saw darkness when her head slammed against the rocks, drawing blood and sending jolts of pain throughout her body. It hurt enough to overwhelm even the feel of claws tearing into her arm, and she screamed in fear and rage and launched herself upward as best she could, clawing at the attacker she still hadn't seen, as he faded back into the fog.

In the distance, she heard David roar and send something, or someone, flying, but by the time her eyes cleared, the attackers seemed to be gone, leaving a bloody and bruised Pack trying to find each other in the dissipating fog.

She limped to Dwayne's side the moment she saw him, and laid her left hand on his arm, gently, afraid he was as torn up as she was. His face was streaked with blood, and his shoulder looked dislocated, but he put his uninjured arm around her, and squeezed as lightly as he could.

David's shirt was torn open, revealing a shredded chest that, though it was healing, still leaked a great deal of blood. He swayed once, but then walked as normal, though his jaw was tight, teeth clenched.

"They attacked Laddie, Star, and Michael here," David pushed the words out slowly, his voice awkward and strained around the ache in his mouth. "I don't know why they were here in the first place."

"We thought we saw something," Michael said. He tried to stand, but couldn't get his left leg to hold his weight, and instead stayed on the ground, where he was flanked by Star and Laddie. "It was too foggy to see from the air, so we landed to take a closer look."

"And then they attacked," Laddie's voice was heavy, and too old for his body. "I couldn't see where they came from, but they hit us, hard."

"One minute we were fine, and the next--everything hurt, and I couldn't see Mike, and I didn't know where to try to fight back first," Star said, and then dropped her face into her hands to muffle her sobs.

"Are you going to be all right?" Anna asked.

"Their wounds will heal," David waved away the worry of a Pack death. "What is worse is that they knew we'd separate. Most leaders send their vampires out in force, only, because all they understand is brute strength. They shouldn't have attacked in the open here, they shouldn't have expected that I'd split us to cover more ground. None of the vampire leaders around California do that, so they don't think we will. Only Max would have, and now me, because I learned from him. Whoever did this is familiar with how we operate. Someone who isn't here, where he should be, and is in fact, planning our destruction."

"If you mean Paul," Adam spoke up from where he, Victoria, and Sprite had just crested the top of the hill, and emerged from the woods. "You're talking about someone who is on the ground over here, almost empty of blood, and close to death."

As quickly as they could, the rest of the Pack hurried to see what he was talking about. At his feet lay Paul, and it was obvious he'd been there throughout the attack, because his blood had seeped into the ground around him, turning the dirt into slick mud.

"We've got to get him back to the cave," Anna said, and her voice cracked with worry. "Before it's too late."

David nodded, and bent to pick up his fallen Pack member, his face set and hard. "It won't be," he gritted the words out, eyes flashing. "We'll save him, and then we'll figure out who is doing this. And then we'll destroy them."

~~**~**~~

Sprite woke to the sound of her door falling through the floor, and then into the very earth itself, destroying everything in its path with crashes and grunts.

Or at least that's what it sounded like.

By the time she'd dragged herself out of bed, scrubbed at her face with the palms of her hands, and scrunched open her eyes enough that she could see a sliver of the floor as she walked, Sprite expected the noise to stop. The fact that it didn't made her stomach twist; obviously someone was intent on reaching her, and considering what had been going on, that could only be a very bad thing.

"You're awake!" Sprite blinked, half-blinded by the afternoon sun, and more than a bit startled to see Rilly shifting from foot to foot as she stood on the front porch. Sprite even looked passed her, expecting to see Anna, maybe, or one of the werewolves, because the vampire couldn't be outside right now, she remembered as her mind caught up with her thoughts--there was no way Rilly could have made all that noise on her own.

The woman was alone, however, and Sprite stepped back to let her in.

"Yeah, just suddenly woke up," Sprite muttered as she tried to shut the door, but Rilly stopped just inside the threshold, and refused to move. "Can't imagine why."

"I couldn't wait for sunset," Rilly burst out, her eyes wide and bright. "Sam came and told me that Paul's missing--do you know what's going on? He didn't have much information, but there has to be more! And then we were supposed to meet the vampires at the Boardwalk, but they never showed!"

"There is," Sprite grabbed Rilly's arm and dragged her farther into the apartment, so she could shut the door, and stagger into the small kitchen, her throat tight from thirst. "And if you'll come sit down, I'll tell you what I know."

Rilly obeyed, and after Sprite had filled a glass with water, and drained half of it in two big drinks, she sat down next to Rilly on the small couch, rubbed her face once more for good measure, and tried to figure out where to begin.

"I'm sorry I'm not coherent," she said. "I got back late this morning--there was a problem and I had to stay at their cave until after the sun came up."

"What problem?" Rilly snapped, shoving her hands together in her lap in an attempt to keep them from shaking. "What's going on, Sprite? No one is telling me anything, but I have a right to know!"

"And I'm going to tell you, if you'd be quiet for thirty seconds!" Sprite's voice was so loud it hurt her own ears; she drank some more water, and sighed. "Paul was missing, yeah, but we found him last night. He's alive, but…."

"But what?" Rilly snapped her hand out, grabbed Sprite's arm with surprisingly strong fingers. "What happened to him?"

"He was attacked," Sprite explained, trying not to wince and pull away. "I assume by the vampires threatening the Pack. They attacked the others and then disappeared, leaving Paul behind for the rest to find."

"Where is he now?"

"Back at the cave. They fed him a lot of blood, human and vampire. I think even Victoria bled for him. When they finally slept, he was holding steady, but still wasn't conscious."

"How did this happen? They're paranoid; not even Anna got the drop on them easily, and she was part of their Pack. How did anyone else get close enough to attack them?" Rilly squeezed Sprite's arm, digging her nails in.

"I don't know," Sprite yelped, and then tried to calm herself. "There was a heavy fog; it appeared right before the attack. The werewolves and I were running up from the woods while the vampires flew in. We couldn't even see the trees right in front of us. I guess they were waiting around to see what the Pack would do when they found Paul, and got really lucky with the weather."

"Maybe," Rilly murmured, releasing Sprite's arm at last. "Or maybe there was more to that fog than you think. Sprite, could you take me to the place the fog started?" She stood, placed her hands on her hips, and stared down at Sprite until the wereleopard had to look away. "Please? I'd like to see what I can find out."

"What can you do?" Sprite asked, pulling a face when she realized how much she sounded like David. "You're just a human."

"I am human," Rilly replied, her voice firm. "But I'm also a witch, and though the vampires are very experienced in tracking, they don't have the slightest idea how magic works. Maybe I'll pick up on something that they missed, especially if they were in a hurry to get--" her voice broke off, but she forced herself to continue, "to get Paul back to the cave."

"Ok," Sprite said, standing as well. "I'll take you. We just have to hurry; I don't want to be out alone once the sun sets. Besides, maybe then they'll know something new about Paul."

~~**~**~~

"I miss the sun." Rilly stretched her arms out to either side of her body, fingers straining to catch the sunbeams that drifted through the canopy of the forest, falling to the leaf-strewn floor.

"Why?" Sprite twisted until she could look back at Rilly, over her shoulder. The human's face was half-hidden in shadow, but she could pick out the longing in her dark eyes.

"When I was a child, I spent all my time in the sun. Everything we did, every game we played, every lesson we learned--it was all done outside, so we would learn to love nature. When I got older, started working, I worked evenings, because I was supposed to be learning about the Lost Boys. After I met Paul, my hours completely shifted. I so rarely see daylight these days."

"You'd better get used to that, right?" Sprite stopped walking, turned, and leaned against a tall pine tree. Sap clung to her hands when she pressed them against the trunk, but she ignored the slight discomfort. "I mean, you're going to become one of them. They all expect it. Marko says it's just a matter of time, of Paul convincing David that it's a good idea."

"Just a matter of time," Rilly echoed, drawing her arms in and pressing her fingers against her stomach. "They want to take everything away from me, my entire life, and it's just a matter of time?" Her voice shook, anger and fear bubbling beneath the surface, and the words slammed out, each a tiny slap to the assumption. "Do they even ask if I want what they have? No! Do they even notice that I avoid the subject whenever it's brought up? No! Do they even care--"

"You don't mean that." Sprite shook her head, pushed up off of the tree, scraped her hands down her pants to try to wipe off the sticky sap. "You know they care. Paul loves you. It's obvious, from what Marko says."

"Obvious? Is it? Then why does he keep asking things of me, things I don't want to do? Things I can't do?" Rilly turned away, hands clasped together, face lifted up toward the fading sunlight.

"Like what? Give me an example, please, Rilly. Maybe I can--make some sense of everything."

"Like asking me to fly!" She whirled, eyes blazing. "I'm terrified of heights, and I know he can smell emotions like that. He always does, everything else that is." She paused, slapped her hands down against one thigh. "But he still offers to fly me around each time I'm with him, because they do. Because I have to get used to it, since I'm to become one of them."

Sprite glanced away, disturbed by the tears and the quiet sobs that punctuated the silence that had fallen with Rilly's last words. She started toward the young woman, but then stopped, unsure of what she was supposed to do. Rilly ignored her discomfort and continued to speak after she'd gathered her thoughts; she seemed desperate for the chance to purge the worries, even though every other sentence was marked by a hiccup or a sniffle.

"I don't want to be a vampire!" The words were quiet at first, but stronger with repetition. "I don't. Want. To. Be. A. Vampire. I don't! Paul's great, I love him, but I don't want that! I like the sun too much, the daytime. I don't want to drink blood, I don't want to kill people, and I don't want to fly everywhere! But they won't listen to me, Sprite, not when they don't want to hear what I have to say. And I hate that, hate that I'm not important enough to listen to. Maybe I'm not as strong as Anna, or as suave as Victoria, or as sly as Shauna, but damn it, I have opinions, too, and I deserve to be heard. Especially if it has to do with me, with my body, with my life--and my death."

Sprite made a noise in her throat, and shoved her hands into her pockets. She wondered if she was supposed to make a comment, to speak up and defend Marko and his friends, or to comfort Rilly, but before she could settle on one phrase or another, Rilly was off again.

"I should want it. That bothers me. I should want to become like them. They're so much better than humans, invincible almost, powerful. They lead a greater life than mortals." She made a face, shook her head until the dark curls trembled with emotion. "But that's not true! And that's the problem. I don't think they're any better than humans. Than me. I don't want to change, I won't!" Rilly's shoulders slumped forward and she dropped her head, hiding behind her hair. "But I can't say that, can I? Because if I don't change, if I don't become one of them, a vampire--a bloodsucker--then I can't stay, can I? David doesn't even like having the werewolves there; he barely tolerates me now, even with the fact that they think I'll turn soon. As it is, he so rarely includes me, not until things get really bad, and someone else decides I have the right to know. He would never put up with a human in his Pack forever. But not even forever, not really. I'd grow old, get weak, die, and Paul--"

"Paul will be forever young and the same, no matter how much you change." Sprite nodded, turned away before Rilly could see the aching in her own eyes. Though weres aged at a much slower pace than humans, they were not immortal, as the vampires very well could be, and already that fear had loomed within her own head.

"Exactly." Rilly sighed, pressed her face into her hands. "I'm so scared, Sprite. So scared."

A stillness settled on the two women after Rilly finished speaking. Neither could look at the other, but nor were they willing to walk away, to leave the momentary camaraderie. At last Sprite walked to Rilly's side and gave her a quick, fierce hug.

"Hey," she muttered, before Rilly could respond. "We'd better get back to work. You wanted to look for--something. What was that?"

"Magic." Rilly sighed and straightened up. "Are we almost to the spot? I should be able to find signs soon, if so."

"Yes, it's just up ahead." Sprite pointed, and then began to walk once more, leading Rilly toward the hill, the top just at the edge of the woods, which grew darker with each passing moment. She stopped about halfway up the hill. "This is where I first noticed the fog rolling in, but it was thickest up at the clearing at the top." They continued up the hill, Rilly panting though Sprite showed no signs of discomfort.

Rilly circled the top of the hill slowly when they arrived, once, twice, and then three times, all clockwise, silent and smooth as she slipped from one shadow to the next. Sprite leaned back against a tree, keeping her senses alert, but allowing her muscles to relax.

This element of magic was something she didn't understand, and doubted she ever would. Even in the years hunting preternatural creatures with her father, they'd never gone after witches. The hunt was too easy with them, her father had said, because they weren't animalistic, with a need to maim and kill, but just humans with a little something more.

From the feel of the power building in the air, making the hairs on her arms stand up, if all magic wielders were anything like Rilly, there was more than something just a little different about them.

"Find anything yet?" Sprite asked, and was surprised to hear her voice crack. She hadn't truly noticed how the magic in the air was effecting her body, but she realized now that her throat was tight, her hands clenched into fists. Though it didn't hurt, the feel to the air set her on edge, and made her teeth ache, the same way the sound of metal scratching over paper did.

"Not a lot," Rilly replied, the words breathless as she succumbed to the power flowing through her body. She stretched her hands out, hating how the air felt--it was slick and sticky all at once, viscous and too warm. All in all, it felt like blood, and she'd never been in an area so thoroughly saturated. "All I know is that there was a lot of pain here, but none of it was caused by magic." She let her hands drop and sighed. The thickness slowly began to dissipate from the air. "It just feels like a typical attack site, so whatever went on here, no matter how bad, wasn't for a ritual or anything like that. I also don't think anyone died here; whatever reason they brought the vampires here, it wasn't because this was their place to kill."

"I guess that's a good thing," Sprite offered, noticing the frustration on Rilly's face, even though the sun was gone and complete darkness flowed around them. She glanced up at the sky and shivered. "Come on, we've been out here much longer than we should have been. The others are going to be worried, about you at least."

"I doubt that," Rilly said, her voice more bitter than she could ever remember sounding. She tried to shrug off the negativity, but couldn't; nor could she erase the feel of being watched, even though Sprite hadn't warned her about anyone approaching. "Hey, Sprite, do you feel anything--odd--about the woods right now?"

"Odd?" Sprite echoed, and pushed herself away from the tree. "No, not really, just the residual ickiness of the magic. I haven't heard anything--"

The gunshot interrupted her words, and Sprite's head jerked up. There was something familiar about the sound of that gun, but before she allowed herself to try to place it, she realized that they were the only things visible in the clearing, and therefore, the shots might be for them. Her fear was confirmed a moment later, when a second shot rang out, and a branch just to the left of her cheek exploded, driving splinters of wood into her face.

Sprite grabbed Rilly's arm, and started to run, keeping her human form with difficulty. All her instincts screamed for her to drop to the ground, shift to her stronger shape, and disappear into the woods so she could double back and stalk whatever was hunting her.

She knew she couldn't leave Rilly behind, and only tightened her grip on the human's arm, dragging her through the woods so fast that Rilly wasn't sure her feet even touched the ground. Sprite kicked into an even faster burst of speed when the third and fourth gunshots sounded, slightly farther behind than they had been before.

Rilly squeezed her eyes shut, and tried to let her body relax into the uncomfortable pace, and the pull of the wereleopard.

When they burst out of the woods, the road, and Rilly's second-hand car, waited for them. Rilly gasped for air when Sprite stopped, shoving Rilly toward the driver's side of the car; she wasted precious seconds digging in the pocket of her skirt for her key, but there was no noise from the trees, no further shooting, and both women started to let themselves relax.

Rilly finally wrenched the door open and leaned over to unlock Sprite's door. Sprite hurried toward it, placed her fingers on the handle, and screamed, her cry of pain almost masking the sound of the last gunshot. Rilly screamed, too, and slammed one hand down on the horn, so that it blasted a solid, obnoxious tone.

She scrambled out of the car and skirted around the rear end, half-crawling as she tried to get to Sprite's side. The wereleopard lay on the ground, clutching her leg, and Rilly's stomach lurched at the sight of the blood still pouring out of the wound, darkening the ground.

"Come on, we've got to get out of here," Rilly said, her words coming out in a near squeak, as she tried to tug Sprite to her feet. Sprite nodded, but yelped when she took her first step, and leaned so heavily against Rilly that the human staggered, struggling to carry the extra weight. "Please be ok, please be ok."

Rilly could hear herself chanting the phrase, over and over again, turning it into a prayer, a spell of safety, a meditation that gave her strength enough to shovel Sprite into the car. She slammed the door and ran around to her side, climbed in, and had her foot on the gas before she was fully inside.

The car shimmied as it took off, showering the trees with bits of stone, and Rilly struggled to control the steering wheel while shutting her door. She was too busy to look back, but Sprite turned her head just enough to see a short man, clad in camouflage, step out of the woods, a long, blacked-out rifle held loosely in both hands.

~~**~**~~

"Sprite!" Marko's yelp was the first thing Sprite heard inside her haze of pain and the struggle not to start screaming in fear. She had tried to rely on Rilly to get her down the slick stairs at the edge of the cliff, but in the end, they had to get help from one of the vampires. Luckily, the sun was completely gone by the time Rilly's car had careened to a stop, and it was no problem finding the first vampire awake (Dwayne, this time), and convincing him to help carry Sprite inside.

Marko hurried over, shoving books and a carton of Chinese food off of the couch to make room for Sprite. Dwayne set her down, trying to be gentle, but she winced and gritted her teeth anyway. He frowned, murmured a soft apology, and turned away, favoring his right leg as he went to find David.

"What happened?" Anna asked, bending over Sprite, though she turned her eyes to Rilly as she waited for an answer. Rilly could only shrug and hug herself, shaking now that the rush of adrenaline was over.

"Explanations can wait," Marko snapped. He tore through the leg of Sprite's pants, carefully folding back the strips to reveal pale skin, slick with blood, and an entry wound that was starting to heal over, though the blood still leaked out sluggishly. He prodded it, ignoring Sprite's whimper, while she tried to ignore the pain. "The bullet is still inside. If we don't get it out now, she'll heal around it, and we'll have to reopen the wound completely to reach it."

Marko felt his face shift, and lowered one claw to Sprite's leg. He cut into her flesh as quickly as he could, to spare her prolonged pain; blood spurted, but he could feel the bullet, and cut deeper, prying the bullet free. His claw hit bone, and he jerked back.

Sprite screamed, and the darkness took her, wiping away the pain and her consciousness.

When she woke, David had joined the group surrounding her, and he held the bullet between two leather-covered fingers, turning it in the ambient light. "It's silver," he told her, his voice low. "Whoever shot you knew what they were doing."

"Do you know who did it?" Marko asked. He reached down, gathered one hand between both of his, and stared at her, his eyes disturbingly wide and bright. "Did you see anything, Sprite, anything at all?"

She shook her head, mutely, and looked away.

"Please, Sprite," Marko's voice cracked. "Rilly didn't see anything, she has no idea what was going on. Surely you saw something, or smelled it, or noticed something out of the norm. I have to--we have to find out who did this, who hurt you." He squeezed her hand so tight the bones cracked, and she swallowed a shriek. "Please."

Still she didn't answer him.

"Sprite." David's voice was low, but still pierced her mind. "I need to know if this has to do with the other attacks. So far, everything that was done could have been done by vampires, with their bare hands. If they have taken up weapons, we need to know this."

"My father." Sprite kept her head turned away, and her voice was weak, but she answered, and without being prompted, kept talking. "I didn't see his face, but the style of the attack, and the figure I saw coming out of the woods when we left--I think my father has finally caught up with me."

"He's hunting you?" Anna burst out, stalking in a quick circle around the couch. She stopped, and looked down at Sprite, her eyes suddenly dark with compassion. "I'm so sorry."

"I thought he let you go," Marko said. He released her hands, but didn't stand up and move away from the couch. Instead, he tried to hide his hurt with his questions--Sprite didn't mean to make it look like she chose David over him. "He made you leave because he couldn't stand having you around anymore, but he couldn't kill you, either."

"When I was first attacked, I was still more his daughter," Sprite said. She looked up, but couldn't handle the pity on everyone's face, and turned her gaze to David, the only one who kept his expression blank. "But now that some time has gone by, now that I've left our home, and he's been able to come after me, to hurt me, I'm just an animal."

"How do you know he was hunting you?" Adam asked. "Maybe he's here on some other job, and just stumbled over you."

"That would be quite a coincidence," David said, turning the words over in his mouth as he spoke them, his voice slow, and calm.

"Maybe it is and maybe it isn't," Victoria said as she stood, leaving behind her chair, and moving to Adam's side. "But no matter why he's here, he'll be hunting more than just Sprite."

"You want to warn the others, don't you?" Adam asked.

"They deserve it." Adam rolled his eyes when Victoria spoke, and she touched his arm, a quick caress. "Adam, you know they do. Maybe none of our people are here, not anymore, and maybe none of the people here helped us, but neither did they really hurt us, and if there is someone who hunts preternatural creatures here who will attack the weres, they deserve to know about it. Whether they act on the information is up to them, but we should at least try to warn them. It's our duty to Santa Carla."

Adam reached out, pressed two fingers to Victoria's lips to cut off her words. She continued to gaze up at him until he sighed, dropped his hand back to his side, and nodded. "We will find one of them to tell them, at the very least."

"You're going to leave, while we need to protect ourselves?" David asked. He turned to face the werewolves, and narrowed his eyes. "You don't have permission to run off on some scheme that you won't even explain to us."

"I do not need permission," Adam's voice rumbled in his throat, and the golden color of his wolf eyes began to bleed from the irises. "Not from you, David."

"David, please!" Marko broke into the battle before it could begin. "We have more important things to take care of right now. Sprite's been shot, and Paul's badly injured, and we have no idea what will happen next. Let them go, David."

David pressed his mouth into a thin line, but didn't punish Marko for speaking out against him. "Hurry, then, if you must," he told the werewolves. "We'll need to fill you in on whatever plan we come up with."

"We will," Victoria answered, already pulling Adam toward the door. "We won't be long at all, we'll even split up so we take less time to find someone to tell."

"Be careful!" Anna called out, her voice tight in her throat. "Please, be careful." She repeated the words so quietly they seemed to drop directly to the floor, fading into less than a whisper.

Marko looked up at David, waiting to hear a great plan, and hoping that it would distract his mind from the fact that Sprite hadn't been able to trust him with her suspicions, but David just turned away, walking aimlessly across the room.

"It would seem the past always comes back," he said, his voice low, more for himself than for anyone else to hear. He didn't explain his words, but he turned at last, looked first at Sprite, and then up at Anna, and then into the distance, as if he saw some other danger coming for them from the walls of the cave itself.

~~**~**~~

Sam sat at the kitchen table, poked his sandwich with one finger, and shoved it away, despite the rumble in his stomach. He was alone for dinner, because Lucy was at work, covering a shift when Rilly didn't show up, and Grandpa hadn't left his shop all day. At first he'd been lonely, almost overwhelmed by the silence of their house, but now that he'd sat in the kitchen for the better part of an hour, trying to take more than one bite of his food, he was glad he was alone, and wouldn't have to deal with any questions--or worse, any sympathy.

He had to admit, at least to himself, that there was less and less of a chance that any of the Frogs would still be alive at this point, so long after they had first disappeared. He knew that for human crimes, if the missing person wasn't found within forty-eight hours, their chance of turning up alive was almost non-existent. Surely preternatural crimes had even less of a safety zone.

"Sam!" The voice broke into his dark thoughts, accompanied by a quick pounding on the front door; Sam twitched, recognizing the voice. He stood so fast his chair tumbled backward, clattering against the floor, and hurried to answer the door.

When he flung it open, he had to blink to clear the sudden rush of tears from his eyes, tears of relief, because Alan was standing just outside the threshold, one hand raised to knock again.

"Alan!" He hurried forward, reaching out for his friend, while trying to visually check for any injuries. "What are you waiting for, come--"

"Don't!" Alan stepped backward, his voice harsh as he moved himself out of reach. "Don't come out here, don't touch me, and whatever you do, don't invite me in!"

"Why--oh. Oh god, Alan, what happened to you!" At any other time, Sam would have been embarrassed to hear his voice crack in the middle of his words, but he didn't care, couldn't care, not when he was so excited and so worried, all at the same time.

"I wouldn't be here at all, but I had to warn you, Sam." Alan closed his eyes, shoved his hands into his pockets. He waited for a moment, two moments, his face half turned away as if he feared Sam would see something when he opened his eyes again. "You're in danger, Sam, and I couldn't let them get to you, too."

"What happened?" Sam asked again. He stood just inside the doorway, and shoved his own hands into his pockets to keep himself from dragging Alan inside anyway, so he could pretend that everything was ok, and one of his best friends hadn't been turned into a--his thoughts failed him.

"We were asleep, just before dawn, when they hit. We should have posted a lookout, but Mom and Dad had been singing songs all night, around the campfire, and then in their tent, and we were so relaxed and tired. And we have that truce with David's vampires. We didn't expect anything bad to happen."

Sam nodded, trying to encourage Alan without speaking and breaking his momentum.

"When they attacked us, Mom and Dad's tent was already shredded, and they were gone. I thought they'd killed them already, and we fought so hard. Killed three of them, and hit two with holy water, but there were so many…." Alan trailed off, his voice thick. "When we woke up, two days had passed, and Edgar and I were vampires."

"And your parents?" Sam asked, trying hard not to let his words reveal his pain, or the tension that swept through his body, making his heartbeat speed up.

"Alive, but being held prisoner." Alan swallowed, and looked away again. "So we won't do anything drastic, like try to get away before we make our first kill, or come warn you that there are new vampires in town."

"I already know that, though," Sam replied without thinking. "Wait! You haven't made your first kill, yet? Alan, that's wonderful news! That means you can still be fixed!" He started forward again, reaching out one hand.

"Don't!" The order exploded from Alan's mouth with more passion than Sam had ever heard. "Don't come any closer, Sam. Can't you see how hard it is to be around a living person? All I can hear is your blood, in your veins, right under your skin. All I can see is your throat, pulsing pulsing pulsing…."

At last he opened his eyes and turned his face back toward Sam. His forehead was ridged, his eyes red, and when he opened his mouth, his fangs glistened in the moonlight. "All I want to do is feed, Sam. I shouldn't have come, but I had to warn you … and ask for your help. I can't hold out much longer, and I don't want to become a vampire. I don't want to kill, Sam, not an innocent human."

"I'll help you, I will," Sam promised. He stepped back inside the house, and shoved his hands back into his pockets. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to tempt you."

"I know." Alan sighed, rubbed his face with both hands. When he looked up again, he was human. "Everything's a temptation now. I don't know if I'm strong enough to last."

"You are, I know you are," Sam promised him. "And I'm sure Edgar can help. Where is he, anyway? Couldn't he sneak away, too?"

Alan winced, and bit down hard enough on his lower lip to draw blood. He licked it up quickly, turning away so Sam wouldn't see the expression on his face. "Edgar can't help," he explained at last. "He's having more trouble than I am, holding back. I don't know why, he's stronger than I am usually, but he keeps getting angry, and every time he loses his temper, he comes closer to giving in. And that woman keeps tempting him, that stupid vampire bitch!"

Sam jerked at the vehemence in Alan's voice, and took a step back without thinking about it.

"But he hasn't made his first kill yet, so we still have a little bit of time." Alan sighed, and started to walk closer to the doorway, before he thought better of it, and stopped. "I know no matter what happens, they aren't going to let our parents go, and neither of us is going to make it much longer. They have to be stopped, right now."

"Ok, I'll take care of it," Sam promised. "No matter what I have to do, I'll take care of it. Whose blood did you drink, Alan? Who is their head vampire?"

"The leader's blood," Alan replied. "I'm not sure who he is, because I've never really seen his face, but I know he gave me his blood, just from what the others have said. He's really tall, and strong--I saw him throw a vampire through a wall last night, for failing to kill someone. I don't know who. They're almost never there at night anymore, just one or two left to guard Edgar and me."

"Where are they located?" Sam asked. "Where do they sleep? How soon do they leave in the evenings?"

"There's a big old factory down by the university. It only closed down eight months ago, or something like that."

"They're using that? But it has a whole wall of windows, looking in at the machinery. How can they stay out of the sunlight?"

"That's only part of it," Alan explained. "Behind it is another building, and it has no windows at all. I think it was mostly storage for machine parts and supplies, because it always smells like oil and paper in there. But that's where they stay. There are some offices up on this catwalk that goes around the top of the room, and that's where they keep Mom and Dad. That's also where the head vampire sleeps."

"How many are left?"

"Forty, I think, maybe fifty. They come and go, so I've never gotten an exact count. You can't do this alone, Sam."

"I won't have to." Sam waited a second, and then decided not to tell Alan everything he knew, just in case this was some sort of trick. "I'll find someone to help me. I know I can't take on that many vampires on my own."

"I don't know if anyone can take on that many vampires," Alan said sadly, but then shook himself, and tried to get rid of the melancholy thoughts. "Two more things. First, that female vampire trying to get Edgar to give in--it's that Shauna girl, the one David banished." Sam opened his mouth in shock, and started to speak, but Alan pushed on despite him. "And the last thing--like I said, I haven't seen their leader, not up close, but he really, really reminds me of Dwayne, he just talks more. Be careful, Sam, if you go to the Lost Boys for help. I don't know how much they're involved in this scheme."

Before Sam could gather his thoughts and deny that they would have anything to do with the new vampires, Alan was gone, his supernatural disappearance driving home the desperation of the situation. Sam sank down to the floor and sighed, staring out at the night, trying to gather the energy to head out to the cave to tell the Lost Boys what he had learned.

Behind him, the door to Grandpa's shop creaked, and gently clicked shut.

~~**~**~~

Anna sat in the largest chair in the Sick Room, as they'd dubbed it after Laddie's extended visit. Paul lay on the center bed, still unconscious; his wounds weren't healing anymore, no matter how much blood they gave him. Sprite slept on a smaller bed, relocated into the room for that very purpose.

Dwayne sat down on the arm of her chair before Anna even realized he was there. She sat up straight, startled, but let him pull her against his side, so that her head rested just under his arm.

"Here we are," she said at last, letting her voice reflect the disgruntled thoughts she couldn't rid herself of. "Again. Watching over members of our Pack who have been injured. Again. There has been so much pain since I joined you."

Dwayne tightened his arm around her, and gathered his thoughts, wanting to dissuade her from assuming it was her fault that they had so much trouble, but knowing if he chose the wrong word, she would just ignore his explanation. Before he could speak, Anna continued.

"At least this time it's not my fault they're stuck there," she said, waving one hand at Paul and Sprite. Dwayne's eyebrows lifted, but he only hugged her again, and settled himself in to listen to her obvious need to talk.

"Unless…." Anna trailed off, turning her head away from him to stare off into the corner. Dwayne let the silence build until she sighed and finally broke it. "I know David thought Paul was the inside traitor, but obviously he's not--I guess he could have worn out his usefulness, and they tore him up and sent him back to us for that reason, but that just doesn't seem to fit. I think he was attacked when he went to check the wards, which means that someone else is the insider."

She waited, but Dwayne offered no suggestion.

"What if it was Shauna, Dwayne? I mean, she was here long enough to learn some of the secrets just by paying attention. And David was obviously favoring her. Who knows what he might have told her that he'd never tell me." She winced, lowered her head. "And that's as much my fault as it is his, so again, this is my fault. Shauna wouldn't have come here if I hadn't been here, and David wouldn't have trusted her with the Pack's greatest secrets if he hadn't been so angry with me."

"You don't know any of that is true," Dwayne reminded her. He shifted around on the arm of the chair, and tilted her head up so that she had to look at him. "Shauna was just the type of woman David always favored, strong and pushy. He chose to trust her faster than I've seen him trust anyone else. And we don't even know if he did trust her that much; he might not have told her about all of the wards. She could have searched for all the information herself, knowing that someday she'd use it."

"Yes, but she wouldn't have been here to find the information if I hadn't been here in the first place," Anna argued.

"Maybe Shauna only came here because you were here--but maybe not. She traveled a lot, she said, and she might have ended up in Santa Carla at one point or another, no matter. Why do you want it to be your fault, Anna?"

"It has to be someone's fault. It might as well be mine."

"It doesn't have to be anyone's fault," Dwayne said. He stroked her hair, and shook his head at her. "Even if Shauna hadn't been here, even if you hadn't been here, maybe we would have still gotten attacked. These vampires are determined; they wouldn't have let the wards stop them, no matter what they had to do."

"I guess you're right." Anna tilted her head as she considered his suggestion.

"We don't even know if Shauna is really the one helping them," Dwayne continued. "I never thought she was one to unnecessarily risk her life, and she knows if she gets caught here again, the Pack will kill her."

"That's true, she always played it very safe when she was the one in danger," Anna agreed, but then frowned. "But if she thinks those vampires are going to overthrow us, destroy us--what does she have to worry about our vengeance?"

"Perhaps," Dwayne admitted, and fell silent, thoughtful.

"We shouldn't have to speculate though," Anna burst out a moment later. She clenched her hands into fists, and pounded them against her legs. "We should be out there, trying to find more information. We should have known about the wards sooner. We should be fighting back, and not sitting around and waiting to see what's going to happen next. Why does David keep us shackled like this?"

"David always has a plan," Dwayne assured her. "He has been leader for a long time, and a vampire for even longer. He will reveal it to us, soon, and we will do whatever it takes to stop the intruders."

"But we should be doing it now!" Anna snapped. "The longer we sit here or run around the woods, doing nothing productive, the more they have the advantage, the more they can take all of our power away from us. That's what my father taught me. We should be out there, fighting them, doing something more than just looking for clues and sitting here, getting more frustrated every night. Action is preferable to inaction. He said that, too."

"Anna, David knows how to protect the Pack. He's done this for more years than you were ever alive, in any form. Trust in him, have faith in him; no matter how much the two of you disagree, he is our leader, and he knows what he is doing, he knows what is best for the Pack."

Anna lifted an eyebrow and rolled her eyes as she turned her face away, but all she said was, "Someone needs to start fighting for our freedom, and soon. If David doesn't, then I will." She shook her head, hard, and stood up, touching Dwayne's cheek for only a moment before she left the sick room, her heels clicking angrily on the floor.

Dwayne slid down into the empty seat and covered his face with one hand.

~~**~**~~

Victoria growled, a low, continuous sound that rumbled in her throat. She was glad to be away from the cave and the feelings she didn't welcome or understand--Sprite wasn't healing quickly, because the wound had come from a silver bullet, and though Victoria didn't really understand why, when she had sat vigilant next to her, watching the young woman lie on the bed, unmoving, was like watching an injured wolf pup.

She hated feeling so helpless.

"Do you really think he'll still be in the woods?" Victoria asked Adam in an attempt to clear her thoughts. She had to walk fast to keep pace with him.

"I think he'll spend his time hunting," Adam said, his voice low as they worked their way through the forest. "He might have shot the one he came for, but there are others here, and I'm sure he knows that."

"Should we ask the others for help?" Victoria asked. She released his hand and moved a step or two away, so she had enough space to open her stride and let her body start to call on the wolf inside. "If he has anyone with him, we might be in trouble."

"I doubt he's taken on another partner after losing his daughter under such circumstances," Adam said, his face twisted in anger. "And if he does have help, or we can't find him, we'll fall back and talk to the others, warn them. For now, I want this to be you and me. After all, they didn't do anything to help us last time."

Victoria nodded, though a curl of worry remained in her stomach. She pushed it away, concentrating instead on the cool breeze, and the feel of her power swamping her body, overwhelming her and shoving out into the night.

It took the better part of an hour to sniff out the hunter. He was good, very good, and Adam's anger was boiling over by the time they narrowed down the corner of the woods where he hunted. Victoria thought about stopping for a moment, calming Adam, because she knew it was dangerous to go into a fight with his emotions raging, but there didn't seem to be anyone else with the hunter, and she decided not to take the extra time. She wanted it finished, and wanted to get back to the Pack, to Anna, to make sure Sprite was doing better.

Adam sprang forward, already shifting into a nasty combination of wolf and man, still upright, but partially furred, clawed and fanged, his muzzle protruding beneath all too human eyes. He snarled just once as he plunged into the thicket where they could smell the man, and Victoria gave him a moment to start the carnage before she started after him, her own body starting the shift.

As she leapt for the copse of trees into which Adam had disappeared, something flashed just in front of her, throwing dirt up into her face, and singeing her fur. She yelped and backed up, only to feel the same blast behind her.

Victoria whirled in a quick circle, allowing her body to shift fully into the wolf. Her tail curved around her legs as she turned, and she panted, her tongue lolling out as she tried to take in enough air and find a way to escape. The noise and heat came closer to her, and she jumped away, not realizing each new move took her farther and farther from the place she had last seen Adam.

For long moments, yelps and snarls were all that could be heard throughout that corner of the forest. Then, rapid shots, automatic gunfire, and one last animal scream. Then, silence.

Then the wail of a lone wolf, rising over the forest.

~~**~**~~

Sam parked his bicycle next to the motorbikes that the vampires preferred, and hurried to the edge of the cliff. He slowed down as he descended, not only because the stairs were slick with saltwater, but also because he wanted to catch his breath, calm down. He knew it would look better if he walked in less frantic than he felt now, and offered them information without a frightened squeak to his voice.

When he finally entered the Cave, only Michael, Star, and Rilly were in the outer room. Michael greeted him quietly, his actions subdued, but Sam forced himself to ignore that fact. There were more important things to talk about right now, things that might help fix the larger problem.

"Mike, could you get the others, please. I really need to talk to them."

"What's going on, Sam?" Michael asked. He stood anyway, leaving Star on one of the couches, and headed toward the hallway to the back rooms. "I'll try to get everyone, but I'm not sure they're all nearby."

Within fifteen minutes, Michael had gathered everyone except for Adam and Victoria, and the injured ones. Even David joined them in the main room, though he sat down in his wheelchair and pushed it in a slow circle without a word.

"What did you need to tell us?" Dwayne asked. He sat across the room from Anna, and cast rare glances in her direction, his face unreadable.

"Alan came by my house earlier," Sam said. He waited for their exclamations of surprise, and then continued to speak. "I'll try to keep this brief. He and Edgar are both half vampires now, and they are having a hard time not making their kill. They were attacked on their camping trip, by the unknown vampires, and those same vampires are holding their parents hostage so that Alan and Edgar don't do anything drastic. Alan's worried, though, and doesn't think any of them will stay alive for much longer."

"Did you get any information about the vampires?" David asked. "We already knew they had attacked the slayers, and there is nothing else we can do until we have more information."

Anna started to say something, but turned it into a cough before the sound formed words.

"Yes. I know where they've made their headquarters. I can show you where it is, if you want. And I know how many vampires they have--around fifty or so, Alan said. And I know that Shauna is with them, helping them." Anna spat out a stream of angry words, but Sam ignored her, and continued to talk to David. "She's the one pushing for Edgar to make his kill, encouraging the others."

"Is she the leader, then?" Dwayne asked. He refused to look at Anna, and kept his eyes on Sam's face. "Did she put together this group on her own?"

"Oh no," Sam said. "Alan hadn't seen the leader up close, but he said…." Sam stopped, glanced back at Dwayne, and then forced himself to look at David once more. "He says the leader reminds him of Dwayne, but he talks more. He wasn't sure how much you guys were involved in all this."

Those who watched David's face saw what little color it had drain out of it, saw his eyes darken with something akin to pain before he hooded them, driving all emotion from his face, posture, voice.

"Ok then," Marko burst out, standing. "We know where they are. We can go check it out, and if they're not there right now, we can set a trap. If they are, well--we can fight them."

"Fifty vampires?" Dwayne asked. "We can't go in and fight fifty vampires."

"Well we have to do something!" Marko fisted his hands. "David, what do you think we should do?"

David shook his head, once, twice, and stared at the floor. A wave of apprehension washed through the Pack, straining their emotions until each was at the edge of his or her emotional control.

When it became clear that David wasn't going to offer a suggestion, Anna stood, her entire body vibrating with her anger, though she shoved her hands into her pockets and struggled to reign in her temper.

"David, we have the information we need. We have to do something about it, now. If we wait any longer, we give them a chance to learn what we know, and we may lose any element of surprise." A small part of her brain marveled at how cold her voice was, how calm. "You will pull yourself together, and you will lead us on an offensive attack, or I will do it for you. We can't win this by sitting around and waiting for the trouble to come to us. It's already here, David, and if we don't do something soon, they're going to win, and we're all going to die!"

David didn't lift his head, didn't even blink to acknowledge that he had heard and understood what she said. Anna huffed, and stormed out of the room, down the hallway toward the sick room. After a moment, the others began to split off into groups as well, though not one iota of the tension in the air dissipated.

~~**~**~~

Edgar shuddered, and closed his eyes, too overwhelmed by the crispness of his vision, the way the colors swirled together in bright flashes that burnt his sight down to strangely sharp lines; everything was too much, the smell of the humans around him, blood in wrists and veins, thighs and throats, and the cool breeze on his cheeks, so crisp he thought it might tear his flesh into strips.

His senses sparked and fizzled over every sensation, but above everything else, Shauna's presence drove him into confusion and a near desperation. He remembered that he'd thought she was cute when she'd first come to town, but he couldn't quite place the point where a casual observation had slithered down the path to full fledged obsession--nor could he deny that he feared he'd fade away and disappear into the darkness if she ever left his side.

She stood next to him now, one hand on his arm, her attention sweeping along the long line of the Boardwalk stretched out before them. He looked at her, and found himself unable to look away, unable to focus on anything except for the tension in her jaw, the curve of her cheek, the fullness of her lower lip, even when four men walked up from the beach, from the direction of the edge of the woods, carrying something that might have been a body.

"Come, Edgar," Shauna took both his hands in her own, gently massaging his skin. She smiled at him, and he grinned back, dazzled by bright teeth and dancing eyes and the way her voice caressed his brain. "You're ready now, ready for your first time."

He let her lead him into the air, not caring that any of the humans around them might have seen their flight. Shauna continued to set their path, and he flew as close to her as she would let him, tonight so close that his hip pressed against her thigh. She held only one of his hands now, but her voice flowed over him much like the cold night air, tempting him with her honey-words and the dark promise of something more.

"I will show you how, I will teach you, take you through your first time," she promised him, running her fingers along the side of his hand. "It's sweet, you'll see, and so sating. You feel it here" she ran her free hand down her throat "and here" touched her stomach, lifting her shirt so she could touch bare her skin "and here" squeezed his wrist and rolled in the air, pulling him over her, and then back around.

"I'm ready," he whispered, and was rewarded when she twisted in midair once more, brushed her lips across his. The world dropped away from him as his mind melted into the closeness of her body, into the gentle pull on his conscious that he didn't have a name for, but couldn't gather the strength to resist.

He staggered when they landed, though Shauna's feet barely seemed to touch the ground. She laughed, and grabbed both his hands again, dragging him forward, around the side of the house, until they could see a porch light, and sheer curtains covering the windows, a recent addition.

Edgar stopped, blinking, because he recognized this place, though he would never have come here with Shauna on his own, and why were they here, his mind struggled to focus, and this couldn't be where he was going to do it for the first time, this wasn't right, this was wrong, and he started to pull away.

Shauna bent in, caught his eyes, smiled and stroked his face, whispered to him that everything was all right, and she understood his hesitation, but he had to be strong, because no weakling could stay with her. Her gaze bored into his, and he felt the pressure around his brain tighten, until bloody tears streaked down his cheeks, but then it was gone, and the only pain left was the burn of hunger in his stomach.

He led the way this time, up to the front door, and he knocked quickly, shifting from one foot to the other while he waited. Shauna faded back into the shadows, so that the light wouldn't touch her when the door opened, and Lucy gasped, reached out for Edgar, and invited him inside.

~~**~**~~

"Victoria?" Adam gagged on her name as he stumbled into the cave, catching himself with his broken arm. The pain didn't register; it was overshadowed by the metallic taste of fear in his mouth, and the smell of blood that flooded the cave. He blinked, trying to clear away the darkness that threatened his consciousness. "Please, Victoria, please, please be here." There was no where else for her to disappear to, no where else for her to go, and even wounded, she would have come here first, before anywhere else.

He tripped again, landed on his knees, and fell forward. His face struck something soft, hidden in the shadows, and he wanted to scream, wanted to howl, because it was familiar, that softness, and it smelled so sweet and so sick at once.

When Adam sat up, his breath came in short gulps, harsh in his own ears. In the background, he could hear the vampires, coming up from the back rooms, Anna's voice rising over the rest, calling for him. He could hear the fear in her voice, but couldn't respond, because in front of him, in the darkness at the top of the stairs, was Victoria's body, slick with blood, shredded in places, bruised. She was pliant even in death, and when he had fallen into her, her body had rolled just enough to reveal her face, the blank eyes, split lip.

A howl escaped his mouth, and then he stopped trying to hold back, and the cave shivered beneath the verbal onslaught of his pain. He dropped forward, tearing at Victoria's body, dragging her into his arms, trying to press her into him so that she could feed off of his life, so that she would move and breathe and smile up at him and not look so damn empty and fragile and utterly dead.

"Fuck," Anna whispered, and knelt next to the keening werewolf, lowered herself to his level and wrapped her arms around him, stretched herself to hold both him and Victoria's body, and she rocked and rocked and tried to understand what she felt, tried to understand the tight pain in her abdomen and the ache in her muscles, in her chest.

"Victoria," Adam whispered, his face in her hair, his cheeks streaked with her blood. "Please, Victoria, please. Please." He couldn't remember the words he wanted, to beg her to live, to beg her to come back to him, to beg her not to leave him alone, he could only chant her name and the one word he remembered and somewhere inside the wolf howled louder and harder and surged upward, splitting his skin. His hands twisted and lengthened, claws pierced Victoria's arms, and still he spoke into her hair. "Please."

No answer came and he gradually realized that Anna still held him, crooning something that was supposed to be soothing, but just made him angry. He shuddered, trying to shake her off, but she clung to him tighter, until he bellowed for his release, shoved her away. Anna stumbled backward down the stairs, landed hard, her head striking stone, but she didn't cry out and she didn't make any move to catch herself; she just stared at him, her eyes wide and dark.

Adam gently set Victoria to one side, curled her body against the side of the stairs, up against the cool stone. He smoothed back her hair, tried to wipe blood from her face, but only succeeded in smearing it further, leaned down, and kissed her gently, his lips feverish.

And then he exploded into motion and sound; energy and anger floored him, threw him into the cave, into a table, which shattered within his grasp. The couch leapt up into his hands and he beat it against the wall until stones cracked from the ceiling and the frame of the couch splintered, tearing the upholstery.

A barrel of fire tipped sideways, and he kicked it again, spreading flame and heat, which did nothing to quench the terrible feelings that ran control over his body. Someone touched him and he lashed out, claws extended to tearripdestroy whatever he could touch. He hit flesh and then bone; he staggered backward when a fist pounded into his face. Someone's boot caught his stomach as he fell, and he surged upward against the pain.

Before he could do anything more, a cool hand touched his forehead, and the pressure in his head released, leaving him spent, agonized, but unmoving. Anna knelt over him, examined the wounds Dwayne had left in his struggle for his own survival; anger swelled within her stomach, but she tried to release it, let it go without saying anything, because he hadn't really had a choice.

Adam shivered, started to rise again, and then relaxed against her, limp and empty, all of his emotions draining off into the heavy cave air. She stroked his head, feeling the buzz of shorn hair against her palm, equal parts rough and soft because it was just starting to grow back, and the warmth, the heat of his body and his beast, twitching within.

He whimpered and she winced. Kissed his forehead. Placed him gently on the ground, as he had done with Victoria's body. Stood and turned to face David in one fast motion. Her eyes snapped with emotion, with power, and when she spoke, her voice was terrible, dark and heavy and demanding.

"That's. It." Anna said, her gaze never leaving David's face. "Your time is up." He started to speak, but she waved away his words with one quick snap of her hand. "You said you would take care of this, and you didn't. You just let it go, and now look where we are. My wolf is dead."

"Anna, you have no--"

"I have every right." Though her anger colored her face pink, brightened her eyes, and made her fingers tremble, her voice never wavered, never rose. "One of my wolves is dead, because of you, the other incapacitated, because of you, because you refuse to look outside of me when facing a problem. It is my right, because my animals were drawn into this, because of you. It is my right, because my Pack was drawn into this, because of you. You said you would finish it, David; you have not. As I told you before, if you will not … I will."

Before he could react, before he could speak, before he could strike her down for her blasphemy, Anna turned, leapt up the stairs, three at a time. She stopped just outside the entrance, silhouetted by the moonlight.

"I challenge you!" Anna bellowed her words into the night, not knowing if the enemy was close enough to hear, not caring, really, as she pushed power into the wind, into the wards protecting her home, into the very night itself. "You have attacked my people, killed my animal; I demand my justice. I challenge you!" She pounded her thighs with her fists, overwhelmed by the rage and fear and exasperation, unable to control the tension any longer. "Come on! End this, now! You wanted a fight; I'll give it to you. Come to me and fight with honor; come, you bastard, and accept this challenge, or leave us be!"

Even the ocean was silent, still, in the aftermath of her words, of her challenge, of her power. The air vibrated with it, carried it away; her voice seemed to ring through the air, the words lost, but the intention pure. Only when it had faded, carried off by the wind, did the ocean resume its noise; the water leaped up to crucify itself on the cliff, the resulting crash filling the cave and deafening them all.

~~**~**~~

In the aftermath of Adam's rage, Sam sneaked out, not wanting to stick around for the rest of the night, when he could tell that it would be a difficult one for them, but not wanting to hear their arguments about how it wouldn't be safe for him to travel alone.

David seemed sure of himself, sure that nothing would happen, because Anna had demanded it, for someone who couldn't, or wouldn't, explain how he knew that, so Sam didn't really worry too much about his bike ride home. He was eager to see his Mom, and talk to her about the problem, and maybe even see what Grandpa had to say about the whole situation.

It was hard, riding in the woods at night, because he couldn't see half of the drop-offs, and after two times running into a fallen log hidden in the shadows, he got off the bike and started to walk it the rest of the way through the woods.

Now the darkness pressed in close, and Sam could hear his breath, loud in his head, and the movement of animals, hidden from view, and no matter if their movements were innocent or not, each crack of leaf meant a killer was coming for him, just reaching out one clawed hand to grab his shoulder.

He screamed when someone really did touch his arm.

"Sam, calm down, it's just me," Alan jumped backward when Sam swung around, struggling to hit his attacker, and didn't approach again until Sam had picked up his bike, and started breathing at a more regular rate. "Edgar wasn't at the compound, so I came back to touch base with you."

"Make some noise, could you?" Sam shook his head, and started walking again. Alan fell into step beside him, and they continued toward the edge of the woods as Sam filled him in on what had happened with the Lost Boys.

"What are you going to do?" Alan asked as they started across the fields toward Sam's house. "Just wait and see what else happens?"

"I'm not sure what they're going to do tomorrow, but I bet they'll do something. Anna will see to that. As for me, I'm going to go home and talk to Mom and Grandpa about it. Maybe they'll have an idea. And if not, maybe you and I could come up with something, if you want to come in this time, stay awhile. I know you can make it one more night."

"We'll see," Alan said, but his lips twitched up at the corners, just for an instant. He looked toward Sam's house to see how much farther they had to go, and then stopped Sam, his eyes wide. "Did you tell your mom where you were going? Because your house is lit up like she's worried about you."

"No, I didn't, but she knows I'm usually late." He started to run, dropping his bike in the weeds.

"That's too slow," Alan said, and grabbed Sam's arms, hauling him into the air. Sam hung beneath him, his legs swinging back and forth, and he had to close his eyes because the rush of land beneath him made him sick to his stomach, but they landed in Sam's front yard only a moment later.

"Mom?" Sam called out as he ran up to the front door. It swung open at his touch, and he cried out again. "Mom? Grandpa?" Alan rushed in after Sam, afraid that if he was invited in, Sam wouldn't be able to stop him later, if anything went wrong.

Sam skidded when he ran into the kitchen, and crashed to his knees. He tried to stand, but slipped, and caught himself on his arm. When he sat up, his skin was wet with blood, and he wanted to scream, but his voice caught in his throat, his chest, his stomach, and he couldn't make any noise.

"Shit," Alan stepped away from the doors to Grandpa's shop, trying to shut them, his arms suddenly weak. He backed farther away, and turned to try to get Sam out of the house through the back door, so he wouldn't have to see the mess.

"Hello, Alan." Edgar grinned at his brother as he stepped between Alan and the kitchen doorway. His teeth were stained a pale red, and his eyes sparkled with unholy light. "Are you still playing at being human?"

"Leave him alone!" Sam flung himself onto Edgar's back, pummeling him as hard as he could before he was thrown to the floor. He scrambled back to his feet, and would have lunged at Edgar again, had he not been picked up, and tossed into the far wall as easily as if he weighed no more than a ball. He hit hard, and slumped to the floor, leaving a long streak of blood on the wood, and Shauna laughed, the sound bubbling up in her throat.

"Stupid mortals," she hissed, and stepped back to watch the final showdown between the brothers. Alan glanced at Sam, and realized that his breathing was faltering already; he wouldn't last long without help, and there was no way Alan would be able to get help for him.

"Better to die than be what you've become," he yelled at his brother. "You used to hate vampires, you didn't even want to help the Lost Boys … and now look at you!"

Edgar shrugged, and in a move too fast for Alan to follow, struck at his brother, raking long lines down his face and throat. He landed in the same spot he'd left, and started to speak before the pain had even registered in Alan's brain. "I was wrong, but I learned my lesson. This is power, Alan, this is anything we want it to be. Will you join me?"

"You're not my brother," Alan said, his shoulders slumped in sadness. "You never will be again. I don't even know you now. I'm so disappointed in you, Edgar Frog." He shook his head, and attacked Edgar.

Shauna laughed again, and clapped her hands, as Alan fell beneath the onslaught of Edgar's strength. He stopped, bloody, and turned away from the destruction he'd created. She offered her arm to him, and led him out of the house, leaving the lights burning.

"That's how sibling rivalry should end," she assured him, and kissed him just once to taste the gore on his lips. "Because both siblings cannot exist at once. You did the right thing. You need to rest now, though, because we have more to do, to prove to our allies that we really are trustworthy."

~~**~**~~

It was near dawn, close enough that Anna could feel the sun begin to think about coming to their side of the world. She had enough time to find Adam, but just barely. Anna sighed, rubbed her face with one hand. She felt old now, so much older than she was, so much older than she'd ever be, if things continued as they were.

She'd forbidden Adam from leaving the cliff, but hadn't been able to bring herself to confine him to the cave. He was too broken to do much, she was sure of that, but he'd been outside, alone, for a long time now. Long enough for the others to leave, to eat, to come back, to get ready for sleep.

Tension filled the cave, pressing against her until she scrambled up the steps and outside. Everyone waited, she knew that; she herself waited for a response to her earlier challenge. Her skin was cold, clammy, and she couldn't deny her fear.

She didn't know what would happen, didn't know if the enemy had even been able to hear her, much less whether anything would happen now, or what the repercussions might be. But something had to be done, and since David was doing nothing, it had fallen to her.

"I don't want to lead, David," she whispered, staring down at the ocean; it was still fierce, though low tide was near. "But if you don't, I will." And she had. And she didn't know if what she had done had been right or wrong or even worthwhile at all.

But she knew what she had to do this very moment. She crept up the stairs, trying to remain silent, not wanting to disturb Adam if he had found some slight peace. She crested the top, saw him in the shadows, and knew she would go to him.

"Adam…." Anna's voice trailed off as she stumbled over the words flooding her mouth. Each seemed less appropriate than the one before, and instead of finishing her sentence, she simply sank down next to the werewolf, following his gaze out across the ocean. She slid forward until her legs dropped over the edge of the cliff, like his did, and she waited.

Many long minutes ticked by, the silence broken only by the sound of water fighting against stone far below, but at last he shifted, just enough to bring their bodies in contact. Anna reached out, slid an arm along his back until one hand could curve around his side, the other grasping his shoulder and drawing him down into the cradle of her body.

Adam shuddered, buried his face against Anna's collar bone, and keened his agony, his voice rising again and again in a sound that was far from human. Fur rose and fell along his arms, and muscles and bone twitched to wolf and back again, each time in a new place, as his control wavered. Still his cry of pain rose into the night air and still Anna held him, silent, her face lifted to the sky, revealing her own tears to the stars alone.

~~**~**~~

"Marko, how are they?" David asked. He stopped in the doorway to the sickroom, leaning back against it, and, for the first time, relaxed some of his tight hold on his emotions. The blank expression slid away, leaving fatigue, and worry, and just the hint of fear.

"Sprite is better, she woke up for awhile, and the wound is almost healed. She'll limp a little tomorrow, but should be fully healed by the next night." Marko stroked Sprite's hand, and gently placed it back on the edge of the bed. "Paul--he's not doing so hot, David. I don't know if he's going to make it through the day without more blood, and he won't take any. I think he's pretty much done."

David shook his head, and his face convulsed just once before he forced himself to feel nothing, to calm down. He tried to draw his strength around him like a barrier, but found it tattered and wearing thin.

"Do you really think they won't attack tonight?" Marko asked. His eyes were dark with anger and fear, and grabbed Sprite's hand again, unable to let go.

"No, they won't," David assured him. He backed the rest of the way out of the room before Marko could say anything else; he couldn't handle any more conversation, not feeling like he did. Instead of heading into the sleeping room, as he'd planned on, David cut away, and hurried into the back caverns, where few of his Pack ever explored. Part of him realized he should spend this time with the others, preparing them for what was to come, but he couldn't find the words to convince himself. Instead he stretched out on cold stone, listened to the water flow along the rock in the hidden pool just past his sleeping spot, and forced himself to shut his eyes and search for answers in his sleep.

He could direct his dreams, if he focused. It was a talent he'd had even before his death; as a vampire, he'd honed that ability into what was one of his greatest abilities--and his sharpest weapon. Now, locked alone in the farthest reaches of his cave, beyond the areas known to even the closest of his vampire family, David stretched out on the floor, closed his eyes, listened to the minutest sound, the rasp of water farther away, the sound of worms crawling through the earth far beyond his resting place. It grew louder in his ears, filling his mind until no thought existed except for the image of the twisted creatures, segmented, brown.

And the sound was gone, the image was gone, and he walked in a forest. Cool leather breeches, fawn colored and worked until the material was soft, supple, adorned his legs, and a loose white shirt, the sleeves falling over his hands, hid his upper body. David hesitated, breathed in, and turned.

"There is no need to hide, William." His dream self was surprised that he spoke in English; at that time, at that place, he would have utilized his knowledge of Italian, which William had loved to speak and to hear, a language David had mastered only for the pleasure of his dear friend. "I know you are around."

"I never could hide from you long while we were here." William emerged from the woods to David's right, stopped just as he came into view, and almost seemed to pose as he watched, waited for David's reaction.

"Why hide?" David lowered his head, unable to glance at his old friend. "We both know this is just a dream. You hide from me in reality; why here?"

"You do not deserve to see us." Jana's voice fell from the sky, visible traces of silver fog wrapping around his legs, curving about his waist. David shuddered, took a step back, away from the cold air, and she stepped out from the shadows, her black skirt and loose shirt blending with the darkness around her.

"Jana…."

"Do not speak to her!" William strode forward, placed himself between David and the woman. She peered over his shoulder disdainfully, her eyes hard when they met David's. "You do not deserve that either."

"How?" David forced himself to focus on William as he spoke, though he couldn't stop his gaze from drifting back and forth between the two of them, drinking in the sight of his lost friends, even if it was just in this dreamscape.

"We escaped the crowd, but were captured by other vampires right after. I had just enough time to give Jana my blood before we were taken, tormented. I was too weak to save her, but I thought you would find us, help us."

"Help me." Jana shivered, wrapped her arms across her chest, slender fingers caressing lithe arms. "They hurt me, and you promised I would never be hurt. But you were gone, and I thought William would die. I had no choice."

"Jana aligned herself with their leader, bought my freedom at the price of her own safety--her own sanity. Because of her sacrifice, I had the time to grow strong again. She had time to learn our ways."

"William came to me at dusk, caressed away the horrid nights. He fulfilled your promises to me; you never could!" Jana stopped, fangs flashing in her tiny mouth as she slid into her vampire face. "When we were strong enough, I killed the leader, tore out his heart as he ravaged my body. William fought those who would punish me. William became their leader. My leader."

"Jana gave me my pack," William twisted his head until he could smile benevolently at her. "I gathered together the shards of her sanity and gave her a life, gave her the joy of the night, the power of our kind. But always there has been a stain on our happiness."

"You betrayed us." Again fog poured from Jana's words, dripping from letters that were almost visible in the unreality of the dream. "You betrayed us, left us. We thought you dead for the longest time, until we learned of your survival, your return to Max. Your new pack and subsequent take-over of Santa Carla."

"I thought you were dead," David argued, finding his voice at last. It was rough in his throat, thick, and he wanted to cough up the obstruction, but couldn't. Nothing real cut off his words, only their hostility and disbelief. "I looked for you--"

"You didn't even try to find us!" William exploded, dark hair billowing around him like a cloak in the sudden burst of hot, dry air. "We found you with ease, David! How can you claim to have searched for us?"

"I did try," David shook his head, his eyes darkening with anguish. Emotions flitted across his face, reactions he would have kept hidden behind a mask of condescendence had he been anywhere else, with anyone else. "They killed you, they said, that vampire pack."

"Lies. You lie to us even now." Jana shook her head, pressed her fingers into her arms until the marks around her fingers stood out, white in streaks against her darker skin. "It matters not, David. You betrayed us, but that is the past. I see the future now, but when my gaze touches you, all is foggy. I see nothing but two diverging from one."

"You must make a choice, David. We will give you the choice to make, but you alone must be the one to decide. Not your pack. Not your enemies. The weight of this must rest on you, as the guilt from your betrayal must weigh you down."

"You can make amends, David." Jana reached for him, releasing her own arms and stretching her hands out to the fullest she could, though William still stood between them. "You did not save us before, David, but you can help us now. We live, and you can join us once more."

David shuddered, shifting his weight forward though he didn't walk toward her. She continued to reach for him, hair standing out from her head in wild tangles as the wind picked up once more, carrying the echoes of her words to him again and again and again. At last he stepped back, reaching with his mind for the sound of the cave, his home, which had to be there, outside of this dream world.

Jana laughed, and chunks of the forest around them began to crack and fall away, leaving gaping holes of nothingness, a void that sucked the color from the scene. David took another step back, his hands clenched into fists.

"We are coming, David." William gathered Jana into his arms as they began to fade away, even as the nothingness ate at the scenery, devouring branches and leaves, dirt and sky.

"We will come for you, my love." Jana laughed, turned in a quick circle within the confines of William's hold. "My love comes for you. I come for you. We will come for your love."

"William! Don't do this!" David could hear the pleading in his voice, but had to speak again, even though he struggled to leave the dream. Never before had his control been stripped so completely. "William! Please! I thought you were dead! William!"

David levitated to his feet, becoming aware of his surroundings only after he was standing. The sound of the water came back in a flood of noise that beat at his brain, threatening his own understanding. When at last his senses cleared, he felt a gaze upon him and turned. Anna stood in the doorway, despite the fact that David was sure he had never told her of the room. She said nothing, only stared at him, her face and eyes unreadable. He opened his mouth, debated what he could and should tell her, then stopped. Waited.

She turned away, slipping from the room like a shadow. David's shoulders sagged and he wiped one hand down his face, feeling as if he'd aged all the years of his vampire life in a moment, as if he were mortal. Wetness met his fingers; he was shocked to realize tears streaked his face.

~~**~**~~

Rilly sat with Paul throughout the day, held one of his hands between both of her own. She had been joined by Marko for much of the previous night, but now she had the sick room to herself, because Sprite slept on, only making a noise when she tried to roll over onto her side, and disturbed her leg.

Consciously, Rilly knew that even if Paul hadn't been so grievously injured, he wouldn't wake up and talk to her during the day of his own accord, but she couldn't help expecting his eyes to open, and a slow smile to spread across his mouth. He smiled a lot, she could picture that easily; even when he was upset, he'd flash a grin.

She wished he'd wake up, wished his open wounds would heal, but part of her was relieved that he wasn't able to try to push her into becoming a vampire. She figured if he had been unhurt during this situation, he would have been trying to turn her all the sooner, for her own safety, for her own good. And she still didn't want to become a vampire. Rilly knew, after her talk with Sprite, and the subsequent rush to get the wereleopard to safety, that she never would become a vampire.

In fact, Rilly planned on leaving the Pack, leaving Santa Carla completely, just as soon as the current situation had been resolved. She couldn't take this constant stress, the fear for her life at every turn. She'd support them through this, but she wouldn't fight for them, and she was leaving while her life was still her own.

She wanted to be free, but she didn't want the price of that freedom to be Paul's life. When it was late enough in the afternoon that he should have been stirring, but wasn't, she lowered her head, rested it on her arms, and wept, crying harder when she realized she didn't even know if she had to mourn him or not.

~~**~**~~

No matter how the stories go, dark and stormy nights at every turn, when Anna climbed the stairs to make sure nothing untoward had happened in the daylight, the night was clear and warm, still holding the heat of the day. Hundreds of stars exploded into life overhead, and she basked in the glow of the half moon, before she remembered why her shoulders ached with tension, and why Adam had slept, curled up at the foot of her bed.

She hurried back down into the cave, and hesitated just at the bottom of the stairs. She knew that everyone needed to be gathered together, given some vampire version of a pep talk, and prepared for the likelihood that they would all die, a final death, tonight. They needed to be pumped up, and ready for a killing frenzy to save their home and themselves. They needed to take strength from their leader, and drink the bottled blood, and solidify a plan of action.

They needed David, and she was a poor substitute.

But David was beyond them, and she sighed when she remembered the bloody tears on his face, the expression in his eyes when she had found him, the fact that he was still far away from the main room, where the others straggled in one at a time. He separated himself from them, and it didn't matter if he meant to or not, she was left to pick up the pieces, and she didn't know how.

Anna realized for the first time how much she really, truly did not want to lead.

Until David snapped out of whatever was wrong with him, she had no choice, and she was afraid there was no time to wait for his recovery, no time to try to convince him that they needed him, even if he would listen without looking for some other intent in her words.

"Anna?" Marko approached her warily, his eyes hooded. He'd helped Sprite limp into the room and settle on one of the couches, and now waited to be recognized. When Anna nodded at him, he continued to speak. "Anna, Sprite wants to be a part of whatever happens tonight, as much as she can be. I think she's strong enough to help a little, at least."

"Good."

"And Paul…." He stopped, stared at the floor. "Paul didn't make it through the day. I found him dead when I went in to check on him just after sunset. He never would take the blood he needed." His voice broke, and Marko cried, silently, tears falling down his face. When he looked up at Anna at last, she touched his shoulder, but her eyes were dry and empty.

"Go, sit," she told him, her voice gentle, but firm. "It's time to gather the others, to talk about what might happen tonight."

"Where's David?" Marko asked, as they walked back to the cluster of couches and chairs just off center in the room.

"He's busy," she said blandly, and hurried ahead of him so he wouldn't ask any more questions.

The others came together slowly, sitting alone on the couch here, standing in a corner there. Laddie sat near Dwayne, and Star and Michael joined them, staying close together, clinging to each other's hands, their faces openly worried.

Adam dragged himself over to the meeting only after much encouragement from Anna. He remained on the floor, half-collapsed on it as if he lacked the strength to sit up, his eyes empty. Anna knelt next to him, ran her fingers down his face, tried to get him to speak, but he only blinked at her and looked away.

Rilly sat by herself, eyes red and puffy, but she didn't cry anymore, and she didn't speak. Sprite limped to her side after a moment, and sat down next to her, leaving room for Marko to join them. She put an arm around Rilly awkwardly, and squeezed just a little. Rilly shuddered, and shoved one hand against her mouth.

This was how David found them, his Pack devoid of strength, broken before the true battle had even begun. He stared at them, seeing both their troubled faces, and his memories, the familiar overlapped by the past.

"Come on, then," he said at last, trying to infuse his words with energy. "We won't win anything sitting around here." The others looked up at him, tilted their heads, turned their eyes away, but didn't respond beyond that. "What, are you giving up?" This time, he managed to turn his fear and sadness into passionate anger, and broadcasted it through his words, trying to light a spark within his family. "We're a Pack, we're family, and even if we're going down, we're going down fighting. And if we just work together--maybe we'll win. We will win."

Anna stood, stared at him, her expression far from neutral. He could read the truth in her eyes, and knew she knew he lied, reached out in desperation for something, anything to bring them to life. She would betray him in an instant, he knew, and the others would be lost because neither she, nor he, had learned to control their pride, their temper.

Anna spun around. "David's right!" She urged the others to stand, pulling on an arm here, touching a head there. "We have to get up, work together. If we stay here, we're going to die. If we go, if we fight, if we protect each other--we're stronger that way. Look how much we've survived. Come on, get up, get up, GET UP!"

"Get up!" David echoed her, moving among his people just as she did. He helped Dwayne to stand, and then dragged Rilly to her feet, not hesitating for a moment to touch the human, to pat her back, and give her an encouraging smile. "We're going into this together, as a Pack, no matter what we've done wrong, no matter what we are--who we are. This is it, boys, this is when it becomes real."

"We've won before, at horrible odds," Anna picked up the pep talk with ease, playing off of David's tone and words. "Remember the fight with Max? Remember the gypsy spell? Remember the Surf Nazis? Remember fighting the Frog brothers, and their vampire slaying dreams? People are always trying to kill us, and we always win in the end. Yes, our losses have been horrible this time, but that doesn't mean we should give up."

"If you give up, you betray their memories," David said, his eyes drilling into Marko's, then Star's, Michael's, even little Laddie's. "You betray all Paul did to make us great, to keep us together, you betray all that Victoria wanted us to be. We cannot just give in and let the outsiders come and destroy us. This is our home, our right, and we must fight for it!"

"Our home," Anna echoed, her face hard, though her eyes were gentle, thoughtful. "The only home, the only good home, the only real home most of us have known. We can't just give it up, and I'm going to fight for it." She looked at David, who nodded to her. "We're going to fight for it. Are you coming with us, with me?"

She'd hoped for a rousing cheer and a flash of new energy for the Pack as a whole. Instead, the others started to nod, and make their way toward the stairs, no yelling, no punching of shoulders. But at least they were up, they were moving, and they no longer looked so dead within their eyes.

Anna and David stayed behind for a moment, watching each other warily. The easy camaraderie they'd shared during the speech had faded, but hadn't disappeared completely. At last he held out a hand to her, and when she offered hers back, he gripped her forearm, squeezing it tightly until she returned the gesture.

"I'm sorry," she said at last. "I acted rashly--much of the time."

"I'll listen more," he promised, the unsaid "if we survive this" obvious in his expression. "I'm not the only one in the Pack who has good ideas." Anna grinned at him, but couldn't keep the happiness up for long.

"Thank you, David," she said quietly, still squeezing his arm. "Thank you for letting me have this, at least for a little while."

"I never thanked you, Anna," David told her, holding her gaze. "You changed Dwayne and shook up my Pack and fought with me too much, but … we would have died, without you. I remember, don't say it, but I remember that you were our second chance. Maybe it didn't last long, but it was almost an extra year of life. Maybe I don't know why it was given to us, but thank you for being the catalyst. You were a good addition to my Pack, Anna, a good part of our family."

She had to blink back tears when he let her go, and had to hurry up the stairs after him, after the others, her heart lighter now, even as fear began to weigh her down.

~~**~**~~

The first thing Anna noticed was that despite how clear the night had been earlier, a thick fog had settled over the cliff. Rilly coughed, gagging on it, and then turned back to her.

"Magic," Rilly said. "They're coming, hiding in this. Again."

"No they're not," Laddie's voice quivered, but when he pointed into the darkness, his finger didn't shake. "They're already here."

A breeze started to blow the fog away, in slivers and small chunks that clung to the ground, reluctant to be moved. Figures started to become visible, two here, five there, a group of ten off to one side.

They were in much more trouble than they'd realized.

And even more so, Anna knew, when two figures walked toward them, their features slowly resolving as more of the fog blew away. The woman was short, with dark hair and piercing brown eyes, and she held herself much like Anna did, chin up, face hard, strength and intelligence and great cruelty radiating from her.

"She's the witch," Rilly whispered into Anna's ear, "and she's much stronger than I am. If she tries anything, there's not going to be much I can do." If she did anything at all. Rilly still wasn't sure why she was standing here, with the others, preparing to fight. She didn't want this life, didn't want to defend it--but neither did she want to die, no more than she'd wanted Paul dead.

The man, though, made Anna catch her breath in her throat, even when she didn't need to breathe, and shouldn't have had to struggle to work her lungs. His hair was cut just below his shoulders, but it fell around his face like Dwayne's did. The cheekbones were different, less prominent, but the nose was the same, and the eyes close enough that her stomach contracted.

"Oh," David murmured, and he stepped forward to meet them, his face open and filled with pain and need, anger and fear, and absolute desperation and adoration. "Jana. William. You've come back to me at last."

"No, David," William shook his head, laughed, and the sound was so different from Dwayne, so dark and hard and filled with pain and cruelty that Anna finally relaxed, and was able to pull herself away from the spell of the near doppelganger. "We've come back for you, but not to you, oh no."

David shook his head, but had no words.

"So two have died, and so on shall the others, until you do, David." Jana shook her dark hair and laughed at him, her eyes dancing with amusement, eager for the spill of more blood. "Unless, perhaps, you have made your decision, chosen wisely, and will join us, will end this."

"I would give … almost anything to join you again, Jana." David started to reach out for her, and thought better of it, dropping his hand to his thigh. "My time with you and William was the greatest of any of my life, mortal or immortal."

"But you would only give almost anything?" She laughed again, quirked her eyebrows at him. "What is too high a price to be reunited with your past, my David? What price is too great to pay when it will bring you love?"

"This." David spread both hands wide, his gesture taking in his Pack, spread behind him, from Anna to Dwayne, Sprite to Laddie. "They are too great a price to pay, even to be reunited with you. Even to save my life, that is too much to ask."

"If you can find a way to end this, David, maybe you should," Anna interjected, as tremors slid along her arms, pulled her muscles tight with the need to hold herself still.

"This is why you do not lead, Anna." David's voice was tired, but strong. "Because you do not know everything. The war would end, yes. My life would be saved, yes. But your life, all your lives, would be forfeit. They offer me happiness, Anna, at the cost of my Pack."

"You have grown weak, David." William moved to Jana's side, slipped an arm around her waist, and drew her against his body. "Your instinct for survival has been polluted by werewolves and mortals and vampires who do not know when to be quiet and listen to their elders."

"You would think so," David closed his eyes, his voice unsteady. When he looked again, his face had emptied of emotion, except for his eyes, which held enough feeling to fill all the long years of his life. "But you are wrong, William. I have changed, yes, but I have learned more than you will ever know, even if you survive until the end of sunsets, until the world is no more, because you have closed yourself to everything new. I tried to be like you, let your memory color my decisions, my actions toward those in my Pack. But you were wrong, as I was. I, at least, have learned the error of my thoughts."

"You would curse them to death, David," William laughed. "You have learned nothing."

"I have learned that I am the leader of this Pack, but I do not see all that is truth," David replied. "I have learned that I am vampire, but I am not all that is of worth. I have learned that I love my Pack, but it doesn't weaken me."

"You will die with them," Jana reached for him, her voice cajoling. "Come with us, David, and live until the end of time."

"I will die with them before I would live with you."

"So be it," she hissed, her face contorting with rage. "Their deaths are on your head."

Three vampires, acting according to a silent signal from William or Jana, lunged in from the outside, tackling Anna to the ground. She vamped and clawed her way free, only to fall beneath them once more, tearing at their flesh.

Before Dwayne could step to her to save her, the others attacked, and everywhere the battled raged, pairs of the enemy fighting single people, a group of five hitting Michael and Star.

Blood filled the air, both the actual physical feel of it, and the smell that drove the vampires into a stronger frenzy. David stood back, killing any vampire that ventured too near him, but none attacked him outright, and he waited, watching William and Jana, who also refrained from joining into the battle.

A scream rang out, with undertones of a cat's wild yell, and when David turned to look, he saw Marko fall, his throat slit, stomach torn by a vampire's claws. Michael lunged in to try to save him, but the two vampires destroying Marko turned on him immediately.

Michael tried to roll free, but found himself pierced by their fangs. Before either could drain him, one was hit by a furry figure; Sprite snarled, her face more leopard than human, and shredded the vampire's back, tearing through his body to his heart. Michael killed the other one, and struggled to get back to Star's side, leaving Sprite to crouch over Marko's fallen body, keeping any of the others away from him.

David attacked then, throwing himself at those vampires guarding William and Jana, his emotions and memories finally lost in rush of hatred, and the need to protect his dying Pack.

Anna killed the last of her attackers and struggled free, surprised to find herself next to Adam as he swung one clawed hand and decapitated the last of the group he was fighting. They were both slick with blood, and Anna knew true fear when she saw the cuts along his body, shredding his shirt, destroying part of his cheek. Something snapped inside, and she heard herself snarl, and lunged toward him.

"Get out of here!" Anna bellowed. She grabbed Adam's shoulders, trying to shove him out, away, over the edge of the cliff if she had to; the fall wouldn't kill him and the damage he would sustain would be worth his escape from this hell.

"I can't." The words were strangled in his throat, thick with his beast and with the emotion she could see in his eyes, even as they shimmered to gold, the wolf inside close at hand.

"You have to! I can't save you!" Anna shook him, jerked him close to her body. "You can't die, too. You can't! I won't let you! You have to live, for Victoria, for her memory." The vampire shuddered, tears of frustration and fear flooding her vision. "For me, damn it. I can't save you. I don't even know if I can save myself. I can't be worrying about you."

"What kind of wolf would I be if I left you here alone?" His voice cleared and he stood tall; waves of grief sheeted from his body, almost coloring the air with the darkness he harbored, but his eyes were clear, filled with conscious decision. "I can't save myself, not without Victoria. But you--" He stopped, removed her hands from his shoulders; the skin there tingled from the tightness of her grip. "Maybe I can save you."

"That's not how it works," Anna could feel her voice start to crack, and hesitated, forging on when she hoped she could speak clearly once more. "I'm the Protector, and I'm the one who takes the risks. You're my Pack, Adam, my wolf, and I have to save you."

"There is nothing left to save," Adam reached out, cupped the back of her head with one hand, his fingers warm against her scalp. "I'm just flesh and bone, Anna. Without Victoria, I'm more than just lonely--I'm alone. And alone I am nothing. You can't save me; I can't even save me."

"But you have to save yourself," Anna's voice dropped to a whisper, but she continued to plead with him, cajole, order his evacuation if she had to, because he had to listen when she spoke. "You're not … this isn't the way you should be when you die."

"Please don't, Anna," Adam tilted his head down, kissed her forehead. Breathed in, letting the smell of the pending mayhem disappear beneath the sweet scent of Anna. "My time has come. Without Victoria, I have nothing. I am nothing."

Anna's eyes had fallen closed at the first press of his lips, but now she opened them wide, jerked her head up, opened her mouth to argue with him. He cut her off, one hand grasping her shoulder.

"Don't argue with me. I know you can order me to go, and if you push it, I have to listen. Please, Anna, please don't. I don't want to survive this. I don't want to survive without her. Without you."

Anna blinked, sending tiny rivulets of tears down her dusty face. Adam slid his thumb over her cheek, wiping away the traces of her understanding. He leaned in once more, pressed his mouth to hers. She gasped, drawing his breath into her mouth, and then kissed him back; she ached with the surge of emotions that filled her, none of the intensity colored by lust. Instead, resignation touched her heart, adoration, and a final, true understanding of the bond she shared with her wolves--her wolf. Adam drew back, watched her face.

"If you stay," she whispered, because she had to try one more time. "You'll be just as fucked as me." He smiled at her, the corners of his mouth lifting up, agony deepening the lines around his eyes.

"You've been like an angel to us," Adam leaned in, pressed his unmarred cheek against hers, spoke directly into her ear, his breath hot. "You let us come home, Anna. You made us whole. Even to die here, saving you, would not be enough of a thank you. Victoria was my life, my mate--I love her above all else. But know this: we are your wolves, you our vampire, and we loved you, too."

The world spun out of focus around her as Anna realized just what she would forfeit in losing her wolves. The ache in her stomach intensified, but instead of arguing with him, wasting her words and her time, she nodded, squeezed his hand just once, and turned away, her battle cry ringing out as she darted into the clearing, fangs descending once more as the stench of enemies filled her nose.

Rilly stumbled over the edge, throwing the vampire she'd just staked over the stairs and into the water. Blood blinded her, though, and she fell down the steps, striking her head against one of the rocks so hard she had to struggle to stay awake, lost the mental battle, and faded into darkness. Sprite, in the process of dragging Marko's body back to the cave, saw Rilly fall, and though she couldn't find enough human thought to remember how to help the woman she had once called friend, she positioned herself at the top of the stairs, to keep any enemies away from Rilly while she was unable to protect herself.

David dispatched one last vampire by tearing off its head, and found himself facing Jana. Her hands were bloody, her hair wild about her face, but her eyes were calm and filled with contempt.

"You started this," she hissed at him. "You brought this onto your Pack."

He said nothing, struggling to ignore the memories that threatened to incapacitate him again, and swung at her, though his full strength wasn't in the blow. She dodged it easily, laughed and ducked around him, and slammed her claws into his side, reaching in for his heart, even as he tried to jerk away, hitting her face until her nose exploded with blood, and she fell back.

Now his bloodlust was up, his fury, and he attacked her again, grappled her to the ground as they cut a bloody swath through the vampires that didn't get out of the way fast enough.

When David and Jana fell to the side, Dwayne found himself face to face with William, and, startled by the similarities between them even now, didn't see the blow come from the outside. He killed the vampire that attacked him, but it had distracted him enough that William reached down almost easily, running claws along Dwayne's throat until his blood gushed out, coating William's hands and Dwayne's body.

"He had to find someone like me but less," William murmured as he bent over Dwayne's body, tasting his blood. "He would have never survived if he had a pack member stronger than himself."

"Then he would have wanted to be with you," Anna snarled as she grabbed William from behind, tearing at his head until it tore away from his body. She flung his body away, and dropped to Dwayne's side, oblivious to the battle that continued all around her.

Adam fought to their side, and kept the area clear of enemies, trying to give her a moment, a heartbeat to say her goodbye, the words he'd been cheated out of by killers whose identity he still didn't know, but assumed were among these very vampires.

"You can't leave me." Anna knelt at Dwayne's head, holding his face between her hands. Blood slicked the rocks in an ever-widening circle around their bodies, a mix of his and hers, swirled together until even the sharpest preternatural would have been hard pressed to separate the scents. "I can't do this without you."

Dwayne said nothing, only met her worried gaze, his own eyes dark, consciousness fading in and out as he looked at her. She could read a world of words within his eyes, presented there because of his reticence to verbalize even the most important thought. Now she lost herself in the adoration, the silent profession of love, and tried to ignore the bright flashes of pain, the desperation that darkened his eyes more than ever before.

"Please, Dwayne, please. I'll get you out of here, Adam will help me. We'll run away, so you can live. Please." He continued to gaze up at her, one hand caught between both of hers. Even as she spoke, she could see the truth in his face as death crept through his body. "I know it's wrong to leave them, wrong to leave them to die, but I can't let you … they don't matter, Dwayne. Protector or not, you are more important to me. Please let me take you away."

He shook his head, tilting it left and then right, just once, and so slowly. Her chest ached, and unshed tears stung her eyes; Anna gulped in air, tried to calm herself, tried to press her fingers to his wound to stop the flow of blood, but he wouldn't release her.

"No, Anna." The words cost him a great deal of strength, and she stopped struggling, desperate to hear what he had to say, hoping he would provide her with a grain of hope, as small but as important as each piece of sand that made up the beach, each stone that made up the cliff, their home. "You can't leave them. They need you, even now."

"I know!" she wailed. "But I don't want them. I want you. Live for me, Dwayne."

Dwayne's grip on her hand weakened, and she clutched at him, twisting her fingers across his skin. "Loved you," he whispered, forcing each word out individually, as if he were shouting across a great distance, but there was no strength to his speech. "Vampire or not. Happy or not. Pack or not. I always loved you."

And he was gone and Anna knew nothing but the silence in him, the loss of feeling. His heart didn't beat, so she couldn't feel for a pulse, or try to pound his chest and kick it back into motion. He didn't breathe, so she couldn't push her mouth to his, force air into his lungs, try to make them inflate and deflate on their own so he could continue to grasp life. She couldn't do anything except hate and ache and want to die.

So she hated, hated the other vampires for wanting land so much that they would drive her Pack to this battle, hated David for allowing his past to catch up with them, hated the others for being too weak to win, hated herself for not doing what she had been created for.

And she ached, for Dwayne, only, at first, and then for the others, because no matter how much she hated, she had loved, and cared for, and lost so much so fast, and she even ached for herself, because no matter whose past haunted them, it was her failure to protect that ended with them here.

And she wanted to die, because there was no life without Dwayne, and she'd said that fleetingly, tossed the words out without considering the consequences, but now she knew it for truth and knew there would be no life for her after this night, no matter who lived on for her to protect.

She cradled Dwayne, curved around him, pressed her forehead to his, her lips to his, squeezed her eyes shut and tried to pretend he was just sleeping and the scent of the blood, normally so sweet, but that now nauseated her, was from just another meal, abandoned for play and rest. He was cold beneath her, colder still with each moment, and she wanted to scream, but found her verbalizations choked upon his lips.

When she rose, her knees complained; it felt like she'd been prostrate on his body for hours, perhaps days, if she ignored the fact that the sun would have risen and destroyed them both. It seemed that no time had passed at all, because the battle continue all around her, and she knew that they were lost, and she saw David start to fall, Jana burrowing into his body, and she found her place to die.

Anna dove in, shoved David away from Jana, burying her claws, her hands, in the woman's chest, and she snarled into Jana's face, her humanity gone, her thoughts gone, mindless of everything except the kill, and the pain as her body started to split in two, when Jana's vampires surrounded them, tearing her away from their leader.

David blinked, slowly, even his eyelashes almost too heavy to lift. Anna glowed in the moonlight, he realized, as she saved him one last time. He didn't want to die by Jana's hand, he knew that now, and knew that no matter why they'd been given a second chance, it was over, and his only fear was that they'd wasted it.

Jana was distracted by the gore as her vampires tore Anna apart, and then Adam as he saw her die, tried to avenge her. She didn't notice David stagger to his feet, didn't realize he was near until he'd shoved his claws into her, from the back, digging through to her heart, and splitting her body as Anna had tried and failed. She fell, and he collapsed atop her, not caring now that his death was upon him.

Laddie struggled away from where Michael was dying, unable to drag him away from Star's body. He tried to make sense of everything he saw, but his mind simply couldn't take all the mess in. He stumbled and fell to his knees near Sprite, his soft sob drawing her out of her madness as none of the fighting could have. She reached for him, but he'd seen Dwayne, and screamed.

Laddie lunged forward, reaching toward Dwayne's fallen body with one hand. His nails scraped the bloody rocks when Sprite grabbed him, cradled him against her chest, and stumbled backward down the wooden steps. She cried out, the sound muffled by Laddie's hair; splinters dug deep into her back where she slid down toward the mouth of the cave.

In the distance she could see the lightening of the sky, a minute warning that the sun rose higher with each passing beat of her heart. Laddie strained upward, his fingers scraping along the cool air, a soundless cry parting his lips; he'd stay out and greet the golden predator, Sprite knew that without having to think. Instinct drove her into the darkness of their home … what was once their home, but never hers.

To her bleary gaze, the messy room looked like carnage, and she dragged Laddie to the couch, falling down onto it as her knees gave way at last. The events of the evening slammed into her mind, overwhelming the fight and flight response that had led her through the battle.

The sight of one of Marko's birds, one wing dangling, broken in four places, was the last straw. It hopped forward, clacking its beak miserably, and she cried out again, tightened her arms around Laddie, who'd at last stopped struggling and had fallen asleep, and let the overwhelming terror steal away her consciousness.

~~**~**~~

Laddie was gone when she woke, and Sprite wanted to beat herself for not waking up when he'd left her arms, because the sun was only now setting, and she knew he'd sacrificed himself, willing to burn with his Pack, though he lived and they did not, but she was too weak to lift her hands, and couldn't bring herself to care about anything.

Something touched her shoulder and she realized she did care enough to want to stay alive. She whirled and lashed out, shrieking as she did so, and saw Rilly drop backward, out of the way.

"God, Rilly," she murmured, and then they were hugging, and sobbing, and Sprite thought she'd never stop, feared she would drown herself, drown Rilly in her tears, because this was it, this was really the end, and she had no where else to go, not with her father hunting her, and the only future she'd been excited about lost forever.

"What are you going to do now?" Rilly asked, her voice rough. Her throat was bruised, and when she pulled back, not releasing Sprite, but enough so that they could sniffle and wipe at their faces with one hand, and try to remember to breathe, Sprite realized just how much pain Rilly must have been in every time Sprite squeezed her.

"I don't know," Sprite replied. Her words staggered past her lips, and she had no strength to fully form each sound. "Stay here and die, there's nothing else. Would I have been a vampire, so that I could have gone to the sun like Laddie."

Rilly shook her head, unable even now to understand the desire for that death, for any death. She rubbed her face with one hand, and sat back even more. "If you want, if you truly want to die, I will help ease you into it," she offered, her head bowed. "It hurts, to starve, and I don't want you to have any more pain--I don't want anyone to have pain."

"Would you?" Sprite asked, hope blooming inside her for the first time since she'd been attacked.

Before Rilly could answer, the world shook, rocks twisting and trembling, and the couches seemed to slither across the floor. Earthquake! both women screamed inside their heads, but found they had no voices, and couldn't move to get to safety even if they'd wanted to.

You could die, little cat. The voice was heavy, old, and filled with understanding. And waste the second chance I gave your vampires, waste the time of the Protector.

Who are you? both Rilly and Sprite wanted to ask, but it didn't seem to matter that they were still unable to speak, the voice answered them anyway.

I am the one who holds the scissors, I am the one who weaves the thread. I am the beginning of the circle and the end. I am what you might call fate. And you are far more important than you ever would believe.

Which one? they thought, tried to ask. Important how?

Important to a form of survival. You will see, if you accept my decisions. Little cat, you may die, if you will agree to be bound to this cave. Witch, you must live, and learn, and find another to love, another who will understand your fear of heights and will not want to make you what you are not and could never be.

But I don't want to go on, Rilly thought, forcing herself to adjust to the situation. Even as the words filled her mind, she knew she was lying, and knew that the voice, the heavy presence that still shook their world, also knew.

I agree to whatever you want, Sprite thought, Rilly just a beat behind her.

Please, Rilly added, please tell us why you're here, why us? Why them?

It will do no harm, I suppose, to tell you the truth. Even I, who has seen the rise and fall of the pyramids, the swarm of humanity upon the lands, can make a mistake, though I only have twice before, in all of time. My third mistake was to keep myself hidden from the vampires known as the Lost Boys; I did not offer them their choice soon enough, and they died without having the chance to make the difference they needed to make. Thanks to one woman's undying love and belief, I was able to give them a second chance, and they had the time to meet each of you.

So why did you let them all die this time? Rilly asked.

My dear child, some things are inevitable, no matter the choices you make. Their death is one of those things--it could only be postponed, not changed. I can tell you nothing more about your future; you, too, must make your own decisions, but know this. Do not fear love, and do not give up; you still have much to contribute to this world.

The voice said no more about their paths, but walked Rilly through the spells to bind Sprite's spirit to the cave, the spells to turn others away, the spells that sealed it off, And the voice sent Rilly away, shook the world until she was transplanted to safety, to the woods, and others like her who roamed them.

Sprite died, alone, surrounded by the memories of every Pack member who had ever lived within the cave, and though it wasn't the release she truly wanted, for now, it was enough. She faded into the water in the back, tempered by rock and time, melted into the cracks of stone, until her presence was as bound to the cave as the cave was to the cliff, driven into existence by the power of the earth, the traces of herself caught in the web of magic as life passed her by.


	5. Chapter 5

The wind, bitter with salt from the raging ocean, smacked against her face. It was cold, tearing into her flesh, but she ignored it, used to the constant pain. Her lungs strained to capture enough oxygen to breathe, and she opened her mouth wider, though the toxins in the air made her eyes water.

Overhead, steel screamed as cars careened through the air-roads; the same power that allowed the vehicles to fly gave them greater speed, but drivers still pushed the limits in their rush to get to work before the clock turned over and the computer noted their lateness. Three times tardy and you were out.

Ginger should know. Her dad had been called out two years ago, and she hadn't seen him since. Because of the loss of his paycheck, her mother worked even longer hours, and never came home. At first the freedom had seem tantalizing, enabling her to fall deeper into the chaos that ruled the night, that stole through the shadows of every day--and there were many shadows now.

She'd heard stories of the world before, years ago, when the sun was still visible in the sky during the day ninety percent of the time. Now smog blocked it out, thick black smoke that pulsed as planes and cars slid through it. Everyone carried oxygen tanks, and the truly rich had entire suits made, see-through to reveal their designer clothes, thick enough to protect them from any airborne toxin, and perfectly designed to keep the air they breathed pure.

Ginger had no suit. In fact, her oxygen tank had only been half full for over a week now, as she scrounged for food and money. It hurt to breathe, and she coughed often; last night, her throat had filled with black phlegm, which contained miniscule chunks of red fuzz. She recognized the signs, and had coughed only into the toilet, so she could keep her secret.

She was dying, her lungs being eaten away. The doctors had no cure for the poor, only for the nouveau-rich, who could pay the price for the gluttony of the past generations, too eager to use whatever they touched to care that they wasted everything.

She coughed again and headed toward the edge of the cliff. She'd only slept a little the night before, because of the dreams that had haunted her mind, sleeping or awake. She could remember few details and little of the plot, if they had had a plot; the only thing to stick with her when she had fully woken up was the image of a cave, nestled against the side of a cliff, an out-of-the-way place far away from the insanity of downtown Santa Carla.

Now that she thought about it, Ginger could remember her mother talking about a cave, and the strange inhabitants, talking about how her own mother had told her stories of parties and Chinese food that wasn't quite what it seemed, of adoration and desperation and desolation.

The stories always ended with desolation, and with loss.

Now Ginger felt drawn to the cave, and as she ran, she tried hard to remember details from the stories. Her mother hadn't told her tales about anything besides bills in years, and try as she might, her brain wouldn't release any of the memories she might still carry. But she found the cliff, though parts of it had fallen away in the late eighties, blocking much of what had once been there.

She closed her eyes, struggled to breathe, and walked forward, not caring that she might fall. She stepped off the edge, as the stories claimed others had done, and found herself not falling into the ocean, but standing on rickety wooden steps that looked as if they might fall apart in a heartbeat; they held her weight as she crept down them.

The path was strangely clear of rocks, and she found the opening with ease. Inside, more steps were broken, but she was able to jump down them and into the cave. It was preserved there, once upon a time truly a home to some group of people, based on the faded furniture, and the stack of old books on the table, the wooden box beneath it.

She approached the center of the room slowly, her curiosity overwhelming her, and tried to take in everything she could see, the posters on the walls, old singers whose music had all but been forgotten, and the broken fountain, still home to the shattered parts of an old personal radio, too large to easily carry.

It was all too much, the heavy, unused air, and the feeling that someone stood just behind her, looking over her shoulder, and waiting for her to do something important. She sat down on the couch, finding much less dust than she would have expected, and reached out, grabbed the top book, and opened it, wondering what kind of people had lived here, what they would have left out to read.

Ginger realized immediately that this was no regular storybook, but a journal, written in cramped, quick writing, as if the writer hadn't had much time, and wanted to get down everything as fast as possible.

Without realizing it, she started to read, her eyes moving across the page slowly at first, and then ever faster as she was dragged into the story, filled with unbelievable creatures, battles, and more than love than she'd ever believed had existed in this world, or any other.

~~**~**~~

Hours later, maybe days, Ginger straightened up, trying to ease the ache in her back. She'd bent over the journals for too long, close to pressing her nose against the pages so she could see in the dim light. Each one read faster than the one before, and each new piece of information fit together to paint a picture that covered a mere year, but revealed so much life that she wished she could step into the pages and join them, no matter that they'd been dead for decades, really, if they had even existed, and her mind wanted to believe that what she read was the truth.

She stood and stretched, coughed once, and realized she hadn't had as much trouble breathing as she normally would have. She tucked the last journal under her arm, and started to explore, trying to ignore the growl in her stomach, and the growing darkness.

At the edge of the first room, she found torches, oil, and matches. It took her three tries to light the match, and two more to get the torch lit, but once she did, and she lifted the torch high overhead, the light filled the area around her with warmth, and directed her attention to a long hallway that meandered back into the cave system, revealing more opportunities to explore.

She went through two rooms, maybe three, without finding anything of worth, but in the fourth room, she found more comfortable chairs, and a few paintings that revealed, for the first time, what the occupants of the cave might have looked like. They weren't perfect; the lines wobbled, and some of the colors had faded with time, but they were enough to renew the flame of interest in her mind, and she sat down, and hurried to finish the final book, unable to stop from the moment she found the betrayal of the vampires by one of their own, to the gypsy spells, to the final battles at the end.

~~**~**~~

Somewhere, water trickled along the walls of one of the back rooms to the cave. Ginger could hear the sound, muffled enough to fade into the background while she had been reading.

She still clutched the last journal in her right hand; the words she'd so recently read rattled around inside her brain. Exhaustion swamped her body, but she couldn't turn her thoughts off, couldn't relax while sitting in the cramped space between the wall and a worn chair. She'd heard noises, scrabbling sounds on the stone, and a sigh, and she'd hidden herself as best she could without giving up her reading; the story was too good to abandon, and she realized she didn't quite care what happened to her, as long as she could finish the story.

Shadows loomed high overhead from the torch she carried in her free hand. Two rooms back from the painting room, she found a bed, long unused. In one corner of the room were boxes that matched the one she'd found in the main room of the cave. She gave them a quick search, but found only a woman's clothing, heavy on the leather and velvet, and no more journals.

Ginger straightened up quickly, her vision swimming; she could only attribute it to the exhaustion and hunger that gnawed at her senses. When her eyes cleared, she noticed a glistening bottle resting on the center of the bed. When she leaned in to take a closer look, ornate gold reflected the torchlight back into her eyes. The bottle was half-full, and the liquid inside was thick and dark. She found a holder attached to the wall, and shoved the end of the torch through the metal circle, so she could take a closer look.

"Blood," she whispered, surprising herself with her verbal response. "That's the blood the journals talked about." She placed the journal on the edge of the bed and sat down, reaching for the bottle, and lifting it awkwardly. It was heavier than she expected, and she almost dropped it; a thick glass stopper in the top kept it from spilling.

"I could be like them."

Ginger twisted the bottle, staring at it, caught in the sheen the decorations carried in the light, by the weight of potential. A series of coughs shook her body; she dropped the bottle back onto the bed and covered her mouth with her hands, catching the flying debris that catapulted from her throat. It hurt to breathe, hurt to swallow, hurt to live.

But here was salvation from the pain.

She knew the consequences would be tough; no more daylight, ever, not that the sun was such a beautiful thing these days, and she'd have to drink blood, but at least that was still readily available, and at least she wouldn't starve any more. And her odds of dying were so high now that any change would be one for the better.

And, more, if this could help her, she could help someone else. There were others, sick by association, through no fault of their own except for being born here, in this wrong time and wrong place, those who had no money, and no chance. But maybe she could make it better.

Maybe she could make it right.

Ginger lifted the bottle in both hands. She thought about the final words in the journal, the sentences scrawled in a different hand than the rest of the stories, the same handwriting that covered the final battle, and how the others had fallen.

She gave it all to protect. It was her nature, the Protector. All that is left is her blood. Their blood. Glass-encased, captured forever where they will never walk again. I tried to bottle them, and failed. Tried to bottle love and hate and all that embodied the Lost Boys, and failed.

All it contains are my intentions. My hope.

Hope. The word carried such weight, and so much more importance than anything else written, because it was everything written, all in four little letters. Hope was what Ginger had left behind even before her birth; now it was clutched between her fingers, slick and cool, despite the heat outside, despite the press of years and changes.

She uncorked the bottle without thinking any longer. The glass was cold against her lips, and she pressed it to her mouth hard, harder, tilting it up until the blood flooded her mouth. She gagged, swallowed, tried again; the salt-flavor was less disgusting than she'd expected, the worst part was how thick it was, and after a moment, it coated her throat, soothed her, and she could feel the atoms inside her body start to shift.

Ginger drank until she had finished it all. She trembled, the room beginning to spin; she pressed fingers to her forehead, dropped the bottle onto the bed, and fell after it, her mouth open in a silent scream.

Fangs descended, cut her lips, fresh blood slipped into her mouth, and she passed out of consciousness, chasing a flash of light, and the sound of voices, laughter, their call heavy with the sound of thunder and motorcycles.

It was like sleeping, but the most active sleep she'd ever experienced. In her mind, behind eyes squeezed shut so tightly that colors flashed through her visions, she could see darkness, fading to grey, and then motorcycles and smoke. The quick spin of the carousel, the horses still bright, their paint shiny, though the ride had long since fallen into disarray, as had the Boardwalk itself.

Ginger reached out, felt metal beneath her fingers, the roughness of rust thick against her skin. She dangled and twisted, trying to see into the fog, trying to establish that she was dreaming and this wasn't happening. A train rushed by overhead, enveloping her in plumes of black smoke and the bitter taste of burning coal and grease.

She slipped, dropped, and jerked her arms down to her sides as she fell, down until she expected to feel water, down until she feared she'd hit dirt, down until she tumbled into the bed, its softness devouring her, dragging her deeper into her hallucinations, deeper into her mind.

Voices echoed in her ears, in her mind, in her body, caressing her organs and her thoughts, painful and titillating all at once. They swept over her, through her, took her into them and she cried out when they left her, screamed when they returned, tasted the blood on her lips, blood that was hers and not hers and sated her while it made her thirst for just another sip, just another draught, just another, a little more moremoremoremore....

When Ginger woke, she could feel the sun setting, actually feel it, see it, translucent and impossible, against the wall as it slid beneath the horizon. She blinked and it was replaced by an ant, creeping along a crack in the stone; she stared and it zoomed into focus, each tiny leg bright in her vision, its breath visible, its eyes so real and so big.

It was night and she was hungry, so damn hungry she thought her body would split in two, crack open and whatever emerged would turn on her and eat itself. She could picture how messy that would be, abstractly, how bloody, and her stomach lurched and she was twice as hungry now, maybe a thousand times as much and there was only one real thing to do, wasn't there, head out into the city and find something to stop the burn.

And when she found a motorcycle in the front room, even though she couldn't remember seeing one before, and it wasn't hidden really, just tucked up against the wall in a shadowy corner, but it wasn't that dark in there, even with the sun gone, Ginger couldn't gather her mind enough to wonder at her discovery. Her body moved on autopilot as she dragged the machine over the rocks, and it was easier to navigate now than when she'd come down originally, and up the stairs, and she knew how to sit on it, how to start it, how to keep her balance as she pushed forward, set off down the torn up path.

Even though she was driving away from the ocean, into the woods, towards the humans, she could still hear the water, could feel the vibrations each time a wave hit the cliff. Ginger wasn't sure what to do, not within her mind, but her body didn't need any help, and she threw her head back and screamed. It came out a laugh, dark and thick and not like any sound she'd ever made before. In it she could hear the others that came before, and a glimpse of those to come, and saw the chain of creation, so different from humanity, stretch from her, back into the darkness of time, and forward until the end.

And finally she knew what she would do. She would find a meal, and then clean clothes, and then … then she'd take to the streets, look for someone she recognized, not by their face, or as a previous acquaintance, but by the hunger and need and desperation in their eyes, in the very smell of their bodies.

And she'd never be alone again. The world was going to change, Ginger knew, and she was the tinder to catch the spark from the bottle, and the match, and the kindling to spread the change throughout the disease-ravaged land. The fire would burn away the sickness, and when the sun faded out, when those who destroyed the world could no longer use their money to save themselves, then she would take her flames, take those who joined her, and a new evolution would rise.

~~**~**~~

Back at the cave, a star winked, just over the horizon, so close it could have been sitting on the top of the stairs. It brightened, and seemed to stretch out its arms, reach for the sky and for the earth and for everything in between.

Slowly mist began to rise up from the dark entrance, up past the rocks, up over the stairs, up into the night sky. It twisted and shimmered and solidified, as much as mist could, into a form, a transparent figure slipping into and out of existence and image. It lifted higher, straining toward the light, but fell back, and began to drift apart, too tired, too lost to find its way home.

The light flared again, and golden curls appeared in the burst, then a bright jacket, jingling on the wind. Marko reached out, through the star, as the star, and the puddle of mist, of spirit in the air, shivered and twitched and Sprite rose out of it, her fingers just brushing his.

Strength and light flooded through and she rose to the star, and the star rose higher, carrying Marko and Sprite, all that was left of what once was. Above them, more stars slipped into existence, so high they should have been cold and distant, but as Sprite and Marko approached, smiles spread into existence, faces began to appear, and at last Anna materialized, her fingers and hands and arms widespread, reaching for them, encompassing their spirits, encompassing the Pack. Marko and Sprite settled into the brightness, Sprite's star in place at last, and the light flared a final time, reaching for the solitary motorcyclist, sliding through the forest, headed for the muted destruction of Santa Carla.

The stars faded, one at a time, their circle vanishing, until only a trace of their brilliance remained, and then it too was gone, and darkness fell upon the land.

End Story  
End Series

"Darknes Falls" Soundtrack  
Part One

"how we quit the forest" Rasputina  
"humans being" Van Halen

Part Two

"ride" Amanda Marshall  
"tourniquet" Marilyn Manson  
"the pretty things are going to hell" David Bowie  
"hallelujah" Rufus Wainwright  
"raise a glass" Heather Alexander  
"original sin" Taylor Dayne  
"just here to the left of you" Adam Pascal  
"you shook me all night long" ACDC

Part Three

"bad animals" Heart  
"headstrong" Trapt  
"all souls night" Loreena McKennitt  
"how you remind me" Nickelback  
"tweeter and the monkey man" Headstones  
"samain night" Loreena McKennit

Part Four

"superbeast" Rob Zombie  
"are you ready" Creed  
"friend of the devil" Chris Smither  
"welcome to the jungle" Guns N Roses  
"hells bells" ACDC  
"friend or foe" Adam Ant  
"deeper" Dexter Freebish  
"witch hunt" Rush  
"witch" Cold  
"turned blue" Caroline's Spine  
"speed kills" Bush  
"in the wings" Tara Maclean  
"giving in" Adema  
"keep myself awake" Black Lab  
"remembering jenny" Christophe Beck  
"long way down (remix)" Goo Goo Dolls  
"save yourself" Stabbing Westward  
"boadicea" Enya  
"closer your eyes forever" Lita Ford feat. Ozzy  
Osbourne

Part Five

"the devil you know (god is a man)" Face to Face  
"wait for sleep" Dream Theater  
"taking you home (live)" Don Henley

Again, thank you all for reading and giving me such wonderful feedback.


End file.
